Promotion of students' scientific literacy has long been and continues to be a central goal for reform efforts in science education. Although there is a great number of research conducted to evaluate student's scientific literacy, less is known about how we can improve students' scientific literacy through variety of scientific practices. In this…

This article first put forward the educational application of immersive virtual laboratories for the problems of poor spatial thinking ability and weak hands-on operation ability. Second, aiming at the problems of a lack of excellent backbone teachers and insufficient educational information equipment, a Tibetan-Chinese bilingual immersion virtual…

The purpose of this research is to improve and evaluate a different approach to develop the lab application skills of the physics pre-service teachers in the courses of Secondary Physics Experimental Design (SPED), School Experience (SE) and Teaching Practices (TP). In this context, action research was used to achieve the purpose of the research.…

This study investigates the challenge faced by eighth-grade students at Southern State Middle School in grasping abstract concepts within the domains of physical science, physics, and chemistry. This difficulty is manifested in their poor performance on summative assessments. A comprehensive analysis of state-provided data, in conjunction with…

The extinguishment of the candle flame in the well-known candle-and-cylinder experiment has been erroneously viewed as caused by the complete consumption of oxygen, for many reasons. To address this misconception scientifically, a series of experiments are carried out to illustrate the phenomenon from a new point of view. Limewater…

Inquiry-based learning can be an effective approach when students are provided with sufficient guidance. However, there is an ongoing debate among practitioners about the nature, type, and level of such guidance. This study investigated the effects on middle school students' (N = 116) conceptual knowledge and inquiry skills acquisition of…

The aim of this study is to reveal the effect of using virtual lab application in science teaching on students' academic achievement and students' views on virtual lab application. The study group of the research consists of 62 students studying in the 8th grade of a secondary school in Antalya in the 2019-2020 academic years. Mixed method design…

Plants and plant products are key to the survival of life on earth. Despite this fact, the significance of plant biochemistry is often underrepresented in science curricula. We designed an innovative laboratory activity to engage students in learning about the biochemical properties of natural polymers produced by plants. The focus of the hands-on…

In contrast to traditional science instruction, which encourages students to memorize facts from textbooks, today's science instruction emphasizes the adoption of scientific process skills by students, as well as the teaching of critical thinking skills. Lebanese Chemistry teachers detected lack in middle school and high school students' critical…

In natural science education it is important that the macroscopic, submicroscopic and symbolic levels are interconnected in a student's mind. Primary school children have the greatest difficulty in understanding the sub-microscopic, which is outside their experiential framework. This research examines the classroom application of the virtual…

Are you interested in using argument-driven inquiry for middle school lab instruction but just are not sure how to do it? "Argument-Driven Inquiry in Physical Science" will provide you with both the information and instructional materials you need to start using this method right away. The book is a one-stop source of expertise, advice,…

Many students perceive science to be a difficult subject and are minimally engaged in learning it. This article describes a lesson that embedded an activity to engage students in learning science. It also identifies features of a science lesson that are likely to enhance students' engagement and learning of science and possibly reverse students'…

An initial goal of chemistry laboratory courses is almost always the "proper" use of laboratory resources including glassware and instruments. The proper use of glassware encompasses many topics, such as laboratory safety, technical proficiency, and recognition of function. However, as many chemical educators can attest, at both the K-12 and…

Learning about osmosis and diffusion is often a challenging task for middle school students. Here the authors present a lesson that was converted from a "cookbook" lab (McLaughlin and Thompson 2007) into a more inquiry-oriented lab that uses inquiry teaching strategies and hands-on investigations to teach middle-grade students about osmosis and…

Both of the national efforts to reform education (AAAS, 1993; NRC, 1996) promoted professional development experiences that engage teachers in authentic scientific research. This qualitative multiple case study used legitimate peripheral participation (LPP) as a way to examine the process by which teachers became a part of the laboratory community…