Modeling is a core practice in science and is a meaningful way to learn the subject. This article introduces a modeling-based approach that highlights the idea that modeling is an iterative process and integrates the fundamental parts of scientists' work and key suggestions for teaching through modeling. The lesson "The Structure and Function…

Enzymes are nature's catalysts, mediating chemical processes in living systems. The study of enzyme function and mechanism includes defining the maximum catalytic rate and affinity for substrate/s (among other factors), referred to as enzyme kinetics. Enzyme kinetics is a staple of biochemistry curricula and other disciplines, from molecular and…

Metamodeling ideas move beyond using a model to solve a problem to consider the nature and purpose of a model, such as reasoning about a model's empirical basis and understanding why and how a model might change or be replaced. Given that chemistry relies heavily on the use of models to describe particulate-level phenomena, developing…

The purpose of this article is to describe a modeling sequence about the digestive system. "What happens in your body when you have lactose intolerance?" is the initial question that will guide the activities. Students will build a 3D plaster cast of the digestive system as part of a modeling cycle through which they are expected to…

Too often, mathematics and science are taught in isolation from each other and from meaningful problems that matter to students. This book draws on the authors' experiences with teacher colleagues, including time spent in their classrooms co-developing and refining lessons. The core of their approach is to encourage learners to pursue solutions to…

The ability to think critically in the 21st century is a skill that must be possessed by every individual. This study, uses a UbD-based problem-based learning model with a conventional learning model to see which learning model has more influence on the critical thinking ability of grade IV students in science subjects. The UbD approach was chosen…

"Next Generation Science Standards" ("NGSS") three-dimensional learning is valuable for all students regardless of age. The "NGSS" integrate disciplinary core ideas, science and engineering practices, and crosscutting concepts, adding rigor to science teaching and learning. Though "NGSS" performance…

Preparing elementary students to think and communicate like an engineer is possible, but requires a sequence of lessons spanning multiple classroom experiences that are aligned to multiple performance expectations (PEs). This article identifies how multiple PEs can be clustered to meet the instructional goals set forth in the "Next Generation…

Each year, an increasing number of science teachers integrate modeling into their instructional repertoires, and in the process, they see how this disciplinary practice helps students reason and revise their thinking about complex events in the natural world. The NGSS Science and Engineering Practice of developing and using models is intended to…

Practical hands-on experience is an effective component of science education. Lessons that involve demonstrations allow learners to explore and verify information learned from other sources (for example, reading a textbook). As a demonstration for use in a science educational setting, we developed a way to make a variable focal length lens using a…

Progress is made in science by constructing many models (possibly of different complexities), testing them against measurements, and determining which of them explain the data the best. It is my observation, however, that in many introductory physics labs we provide students with the materials and methods to verify the "correct" model of…

The debate over the mechanisms responsible for the flow rates of simple tube siphons has received much attention in the physics education and general physics literature in the past decade. Particularly with regard to the driving mechanism for water siphons, some suggested explanations emphasize contributions, or lack thereof, from the atmospheric…

In this study, the effect of teaching based on the 5E instructional model on students' conceptual learning was investigated. The participants consisted of three inclusion students with mild mental disabilities who were studying in the sixth grade of a secondary school. A lesson plan based on the 5E teaching model was designed, focusing on the…

In this paper, we present a physical modeling activity whose objective is to allow students to determine the differences between a disk and a sphere using pure scientific criteria. Thereunto, we reproduce the Sun-Earth-Moon system with low-cost materials and compare the illumination effects on the Moon considering two possible shapes for it (a…

Models are at the heart of any physics discipline, and in recent decades physics education has shifted heavily toward teaching students how to think using models. Involving students in an investigation of a real phenomenon through measurements and the applications of models is an ideal learning experience for a physics student and is the aim of…