Many standards documents and learning progressions recommend evolution learning in elementary grades. Given young children's interest in dinosaurs and other fossils, fossil investigations can provide a rich entry into evolutionary biology for young learners. Educational psychology literature has addressed children's reasoning about foundational concepts related to fossils such as living/nonliving distinctions, causation, origins of objects, and conceptions of time. This exploratory qualitative case study explored preschool children's ideas about fossils and these foundational concepts as children moved through a 1-week science camp devoted to fossils. Research participants consisted of 15 preschool children aged 3-6 enrolled in a university-affiliated summer camp. Data sources included daily assessments and postcamp individual interviews. Data analysis yielded several main findings. Children weresuccessful at determining where fossils could be found, identifying familiar fossils and fossil tracks, ascertaining that familiar and unfamiliar fossils were nonliving, and determining that rocks have natural origins. Children struggled more often at understanding how fossils differ from recent bones and skulls, properties uniting fossils, and the natural origins of plants and unfamiliar fossils. We also noted clear age-and object-related trends for living/nonliving distinctions, teleological reasoning, origins, and object ages. Implications for future research and practice are offered.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of media literacy and attitudes towards socioscientific issues as two major predictors of informal reasoning. A sample of 208 preservice science teachers completed an open-ended informal reasoning questionnaire on hydroelectric power plant issue, media literacy level determination scale, and attitudes towards socio-scientific issues scale. In this study, descriptive research method was used. We used both qualitative and quantitative methods to analyze the data. Results indicated that the participants frequently used ecological-oriented arguments. The participants least used health-oriented arguments. Regarding reasoning qualities, the participants typically created supportive arguments, rather than counterarguments and rebuttals. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed validity and reliability evidence consistent with previous research. Multiple regression analyses revealed that perceived level of media literacy predicted informal reasoning. However, attitudes towards socioscientific issues did not explain informal reasoning. We offer implications for science teacher education programs.

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Even though children are natural scientists, many preschools isolate and limit science, which can cause children to miss out on valuable learning experiences and school readiness skills. Additionally, minimizing science at the preschool level fails to set a solid foundation for K‐12 science education. In this single case study, we focused on the experiences and daily work of one constructivist‐oriented preschool teacher who utilized science‐based guided play and emergent curriculum as vehicles for important aspects of preschool learning. Findings demonstrate that with careful planning and intention, science can be utilized as a context for nonscience preschool learning objectives outlined by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, such as socioemotional development and early literacy. Further, being purposeful about taking up children's ideas about science can lead to rigorous engagement in the three dimensions of science found in the A Framework for K‐12 Education as well as the Nature of Science. What is notable in this case study is that the teacher did not fundamentally alter her instruction, nor did she take up a prescribed science curriculum; rather, she utilized children's science noticings and wonderings about the world to build meaningful learning experiences. In this way, we see the efforts and outcomes of this teacher being attainable by other preschool teachers. From these findings, we put forward the Integrated Preschool Science Framework that can be used by researchers and teacher educators to think more deeply about how placing science at the center of preschoolers' learning can provide rich opportunities for supporting preschools in multiple learning domains.