Re Constructing Elementary Science seeks to improve the way science is taught in the elementary
school. There are three main contradictions that make it difficult for teachers and students to
engage in meaningful activities from which understandings result. The central issues in this
book are framed in terms of three dichotomies that lead to tensions arising from the dialectic
of opposing aspects of teaching and learning. First there is a tension between learning as an
individual process (cultural production) and as a cultural process (cultural reproduction).
Second there is a tension between science and technology (applied science). Finally there
exists a tension between children's interaction with nature and their language for describing
and explaining nature. Exemplary case studies are featured that show the tremendous
capabilities of elementary students to talk about technology and in the process to learn to
talk science. These case studies are couched in an ongoing professional dialogue among the
authors and the requirements to make such exemplary science happen in other classrooms.
