In science classrooms, students usually see and work with data that's intended to tell them right away about the natural world. Students then often treat the data we provide to them as factual, rather than as a source of evidence (Duschl 2008; Sandoval and Millwood 2005; Berland and Reiser 2009; McNeill and Berland 2017; Hancock, Kaput, and…

A versatile experiment is described for the high school and college laboratory setting based on the synthesis of biobased polymers prepared from inexpensive, renewable, and nonhazardous chemicals. Combinations of readily available citric acid, glycerol, and tapioca root starch are used to prepare three polymeric materials with different observable…

This high school-level, place-based, inquiry-driven laboratory module familiarises students with techniques used to analyse animal behaviour while facilitating the development of the observational skills highlighted by the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Throughout the module, students observe, quantify, and discuss local invertebrate…

Due to the conditions imposed worldwide by the pandemic, students' access to school laboratories is limited, if not impossible. To provide students with raw experimental data to assess, analyse and reason out, we have filmed experiments that can be used in a flipped classroom. This paper presents an experiment which makes use of an array of six…

There has been an ongoing debate of which physical labs or virtual labs are better. To resolve this issue, a remote lab provides an online lab that can do real experiments to obtain real data from a distant physical lab. Instead of relying on a remote lab, this article suggests that students collect experimental data locally with low-cost data…

Solubility is frequently introduced at the high school and introductory college levels through the symbolic domain using net ionic equations and solubility product constants. Students may become proficient with spectator ion cancellation and skilled with algorithmic mathematical applications of solubility without obtaining a deeper understanding…

The results of PISA 2015 indicate that Taiwanese students have excellent mathematical and scientific knowledge but are weak in applying such knowledge and in conducting practical experiments in the laboratory. To support students conducting practical experiments in physics laboratories, a real-time data logging system and an online tool for…

In recent science education, experimentation features ever more strongly as a method of inquiry in science classes rather than as a means to illustrate phenomena. Ideas and materials to teach inquiry abound. Yet, tools for assessing students' achievement in their processes of experimentation are lacking. The present study assumes a basal,…

Every high school graduate should be able to use data analysis and statistical reasoning to draw conclusions about the world. Two core statistical concepts for students to understand are the role of variability in measures and evaluating the effect of a variable. In the activity presented in this article, students investigate a scientific question…

The introduction of a planetary science topic into teaching provides an opportunity for teachers to broaden the science base and offer an enrichment activity outside the National Curriculum. It enables students to undertake independent learning by engaging in a scientific investigation relevant to the real world. Here, more able students are given…

As advanced placement (AP) teachers strive to implement the changes outlined in the AP chemistry redesign, they will have the opportunity to reflect on and evaluate their current practices. For many AP teachers, the new focus on conceptual understanding, reasoning, inquiry, and critical thinking over memorization and algorithmic problem solving…

Students need practice in proposing hypotheses, developing experiments that will test these hypotheses, and generating data that they will analyze to support or refute them. I describe a guided-inquiry activity based on the "tongue map" concept, appropriate for middle school and high school students.

The EU as a context for science lessons may be given scant attention but EU decision-making is a vital factor in everyday life. Lessons on the emergence of soil science with Charles Darwin's simple scientific experiments can be linked with competence through action, inclusion and argumentations in science lessons. Decisions about an EU Soil…

In the lesson presented in this article, students learn to organize their thinking and design their own inquiry experiments through careful observation of an object, situation, or event. They then conduct these experiments and report their findings in a lab report, poster, trifold board, slide, or video that follows the typical format of the…