@article{fiocca_carrier_mcgowan_2024, title={Turning Science Lessons Inside Out: Professional Development for Elementary School Teachers' Outdoor Instruction}, volume={16}, ISSN={["1948-5123"]}, DOI={10.18666/JOREL-2024-12469}, abstractNote={Despite the growing field of research focusing on the benefits of learning science in the outdoors where students have direct connections with the natural world, teachers report that challenges such as time and test preparation discourage outdoor science instruction. Additionally, many teachers feel ill-equipped and a lack of support from administrators to teach science and enact outdoor instruction. We present research collected during a series of professional development workshops at two elementary schools designed to help teachers recognize the potential for teaching science outdoors and provide strategies for adapting their existing lessons to include schoolyard experiences. Through observation and interview data with teachers and school leaders, we document teachers’ views of and experiences with outdoor teaching and learning. Interview data document four major themes that include teachers’ outdoor experiences, outdoor connections with science and other subjects, benefits and barriers of outdoor teaching and learning, and teachers’ impressions of students and outdoor science. While teachers report that the year-long professional development experience provided a strong introduction to outdoor instruction, they need continued support to enact authentic science instruction situated in the schoolyard.}, number={4}, journal={JOURNAL OF OUTDOOR RECREATION EDUCATION AND LEADERSHIP}, author={Fiocca, Stephanie and Carrier, Sarah J. and McGowan, Jill}, year={2024}, pages={15–31} }
 @article{grifenhagen_carrier_scharen_fiocca_2021, title={Touch-Talk-Text: Science Practices and Language for Reading Comprehension}, volume={7}, ISSN={["1936-2714"]}, DOI={10.1002/trtr.2033}, abstractNote={Abstract Elementary teachers are tasked with teaching the language and literacy strategies and skills leading to reading comprehension while also teaching disciplinary content that is the subject of texts, frequently with limited instructional time. Prior research demonstrates that an integrated approach to science and literacy instruction featuring authentic, hands‐on science experiences increases student learning. The authors have developed an instructional framework, Touch‐Talk‐Text , for elementary classrooms. This framework emphasizes student engagement in authentic science practices integrated with meaningful science discourse and connected to comprehending science‐related texts to support comprehension. The authors provide two examples of how this framework has been enacted in classrooms, one from lower elementary and one from upper elementary grades, and share strategies for how classroom teachers can implement it into their current science and literacy teaching practices.}, journal={READING TEACHER}, author={Grifenhagen, Jill F. and Carrier, Sarah J. and Scharen, Danielle R. and Fiocca, Stephanie J.}, year={2021}, month={Jul} }