Productive Uncertainty in Science Education: Engaging Students in Meaningful Science Practice

Science is driven by the need to manage uncertainty—uncertainty about how to explain the world, but also how to represent the world in an investigation, what to measure, and how to convince peers to see what the scientist wants them to see. For children, uncertainty supports engagement with materials, more purposeful science practice, and deeper conceptual understanding, yet classroom investigations typically reflect little of the uncertainty that scientists grapple with. How can we move pa...