Congratulations to PIESC3 project doctoral student Mandy Biggers for being accepted to the 2011 Sandra K. Abell Institute for Doctoral Students. The institute will be co-hosted by BSCS and Penn State University and held in Colorado Springs, CO, 23 – 28 July 2011. Mandy’s research, which is embedded in the PIESC3 project, focuses on how practicing elementary teachers adapt kit-based elementary science curriculum materials to better engage students in comparing and evaluating theirs and others’ evidence-based explanations for scientific phenomena. This scientific practice is one of 5 essential features of inquiry identified by the National Research Council (2000).