Active learning approaches to biology teaching, including simulation-based activities, are known to enhance student learning, especially of higher-order skills; nonetheless, there are still many open questions about what features of an activity promote optimal learning. Here we designed three versions of a simulation-based tutorial called…

Teaching chemistry and biology students about biologics design remains challenging despite its increasing importance in pharmaceutical development. Monoclonal antibodies, commonly called mAbs, are the most popular biologics. They have been developed into drugs to treat various diseases in the past decades. Multiple challenges exist for designing…

Astronomy education is essential for STEM education in primary schools, and integrating engineering design-based science education enhances student engagement and achievement in the field of space science. Integrating engineering design into science education is essential for students to excel in astronomy and to meet the requirements of…

Human anatomy is a key subject area within undergraduate kinesiology programs. However, literature detailing the course structures, available resources, and teaching approaches used to deliver anatomy education in kinesiology programs is lacking. The present study sought to address this deficit by surveying instructors in Canadian university and…

Eleven high school students participated in a one-week STEM summer camp focused on designing and building parachutes to deliver fragile objects safely. Using the Engineering Design Process (EDP) as a framework, students explored how canopy size affects performance. They applied physics concepts such as terminal velocity, forces, and acceleration,…

Design-Based Learning and computational thinking (CT) are two key components that support each other specifically in the learning process involving the development of experimental design. Both components emphasize the importance of integration between computational thinking and design-based learning to support a creative, innovative and data…

Inquiry-based instruction has played an important role in science education, and been recognized as a critical approach to improve students' scientific learning effectiveness. However, current research revealed that it is a challenge for teacher education programs to improve pre-service science teachers' inquiry-based instructional activity design…

This study examined the effect of design-based science instruction (DBSI) on sixth grade students' science achievement, as well as their development in relation to science process skills. 213 sixth grade students from three public schools participated in the study. A pilot was conducted in the unit of Systems of the Human Body and the main study…

In educational research, there is the general trade-off that empirical evidence should be generalizable to be applicable across contexts; at the same time, empirical evidence should be as specific as possible to be localizable in subject-specific educational interventions to successfully transfer the empirical evidence to educational practice.…

Play is crucial to children's development. With the prevalent use of digital technologies, children and young adults are seen playing games more often and longer on digital devices. How should teachers capitalize the advantages of games in class, without inducing more health risks or problems for children? To achieve this goal, teachers need…

Background: Emotional design of multimedia lessons involves adding features that are intended to increase learner enjoyment and promote learning--such as adding narrative, anthropomorphizing non-human elements, and using warm colours. Objective: The present study extends this work to examine the potential of Japanese animation (anime) for…

Clear, detailed instructional procedures have an important role to play in laboratory teaching to not only produce consistent results but also ensure safe practices. Student success in using these procedures can be strengthened through the use of video resources. However, not all video content will have the same impact. Videos must have sufficient…

Foregrounding climate education in formal science learning environments provides students with opportunities to develop critical climate-related knowledge and skills. However, research has shown many challenges to teaching and learning about Earth's climate and global climate change (GCC). This longitudinal study aims to establish how secondary…

As quantum technologies transition out of the research lab and into commercial applications, it becomes important to better prepare students to enter this new and evolving workforce. To work toward this goal of preparing physics students for a career in the quantum industry, a senior capstone course called "Quantum Forge" was created at…

Knowledge-producing practices in sciences and engineering increasingly use computational means for modeling and working with data. Despite consensus regarding the importance of computational thinking in science and engineering, scholars differ in conceptualization of the primary purposes and role of its integration in K-12 science (Kafai &…