Preservice Teachers' Meaningful Science Learning: A Collaborative Project between a College of Education and an Elementary School

This article describes how preservice elementary teachers learn about the nature of science and develop scientific literacy through a collaborative project that prepares them to design meaningful learning experiences for students. The Life's Replica Project was an effort between a college professor and an elementary school teacher to facilitate meaningful science learning. The preservice teachers were students from two college courses in a teacher preparation program. The project's strategy focused on learning through problematization and inquiry-based activities that engaged participants in diverse and collaborative learner-centered experiences. Students were presented with the problem of human beings' impact on Earth's ecosystems, and they were challenged to collaborate through community service by creating and presenting a product that addressed the needs they identified. Some of the project's assessments were the answers gathered in the KWH table (know, want to know, and how will we learn it), from group reflections on the learning experiences with the core activities of the project, and through the creation of educational materials. The project's assessment outcomes demonstrated its contribution to the development of meaningful science learning for preservice elementary teachers.