Science Writing Heuristic Project

In the summer of 2004, a grant from the Iowa Department of Education initiated a study using the Science Writing Heuristic (SWH) in cooperation with Iowa State University, area educational agencies, six school districts, and 32 elementary teachers. The SWH is an approach that attempts to replicate authentic science activities by scaffolding students' critical thinking and problem solving strategies while embedding opportunities to orally make arrangements based on evidence, engage in critical content reading, and write in a variety of formats to understand and present findings. The participating teachers are involved in a three-year implementation and analysis cycle.

AEA 11 schools involved in the project are Woodward-Granger and the Des Moines Diocese.

For additional information please go to SWH At Iowa State or contact Dr. Brian Hand .

Synthesis of Research on Teaching Writing (Document found in Ebsco- your will need to sign in with your username and password)

Flowchart (PDF) on how to Integrate Writing into Science

Iowa State SWH Website