This study employed a cross case analysis research design to explore young elementary students’ task understanding and its relationship to learning. Participants included 13 grade two students. Research was incorporated into the regular activities of a second grade class. Students learned about animal lifecycles and completed an associated activity (task) about the frog lifecycle during five hour-long sessions. The Task Understanding Questionnaire (TUQ), targeting students’ perceptions of explicit (e.g., task requirements) and implicit (e.g., course concepts, task purpose) task features, was administered at the end of each session. Findings indicate young students’ task understanding accuracy varied. Students demonstrated strong, improved, and weak task perceptions. Task understanding was also associated with learning outcomes. For students with limited prior knowledge, accurate task understanding was related to successful learning. / Graduate