Doing science at the elbows of experts: Issues related to the science apprenticeship camp

The purpose of this paper is to synthesize literature related to apprentice ship learning, the sociology of science, and K-12 science education to deve lop a set of characteristics for designing/evaluating participatory science learning experiences. Following this discussion, we further clarify and il luminate the value of these characteristics for science educators by using them as evaluative criteria for characterizing the experiences of 24 middle school learners who embarked on a 2-week long camp with "real" scientists engaged in "real" research. We also describe how middle school science teac hers supported both reflection-in-practice and reflection-on-practice durin g the camp, and how an electronic notebook was also leveraged to support bo th types of reflection. Implications of these characteristics for science e ducation more generally are discussed. (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J R es Sci Teach 38: 70-102, 2001.