With the critical nature of socio-ecological challenges, the need to empower young people to generatively grapple with these science-related issues is crucial for developing their agentic citizenship. This paper reports on a primary science project that adopted a Socratic Seminar pedagogical strategy to enable student voice and collaborative solutions to a local/global socio-ecological challenge. Exploring microorganisms in a COVID-19-affected world, student agency and investigative practices were prioritised. We report a semiotic analysis of the student-led investigations and discussions informing decision-making and action. Students enacted scientifically grounded reasoning, posed evidence-focused questions and engaged in collaborative argumentation towards solutions. The culminating ‘Scientists for Solutions’ Socratic Seminar closely emulated the practices of the science community in supporting the generation of evidence-informed solutions. This paper unpacks this pedagogical approach. The findings inform the nature and creation of epistemic space within the primary science classroom that fosters student scientific questioning, inquiry decisions and collaborative decision-making through a Socratic Seminar process.

鉴于社会生态挑战的关键性质，赋予年轻人权力以生成性地解决这些与科学相关的问题对于培养他们的代理公民身份至关重要。本文报告了一个初级科学项目，该项目采用了苏格拉底研讨会教学策略，使学生能够发出声音并协作解决当地/全球社会生态挑战。在受 COVID-19 影响的世界中探索微生物，优先考虑学生能动性和调查实践。我们报告了对学生主导的调查和讨论的符号学分析，为决策和行动提供信息。学生们制定了以科学为基础的推理，提出了以证据为中心的问题，并就解决方案进行了协作论证。高潮的“科学家寻求解决方案”苏格拉底研讨会密切模仿科学界的实践，支持产生循证解决方案。本文解读了这种教学方法。这些发现为小学科学课堂中认识空间的性质和创建提供了信息，通过苏格拉底研讨会过程促进学生的科学提问、探究决策和协作决策。