Essential Elements

Essential Elements provides professional development for educators to help build confidence in teaching hands-on science.

Essential Elements is based on the 5E learning cycle approach to teaching, which is based in the theory of constructivism. Through this cycle, students build their own understanding of new concepts from both prior and new experiences. Each part of the cycle describes a phase of learning: engage, explore, explain, elaborate, and evaluate. During an Essential Elements workshop, the instructor will lead educators through a full 5E learning cycle using a lesson from the Activity Guides. Educators then get a chance to collaborate and plan their own 5E lesson from additional Activity Guide lessons.