Pedagogical approaches for supporting students' argumentative writing in science laboratories have not been fully established. This article examines the development of argumentative abilities in undergraduate students enrolled in chemistry laboratory courses that employed two teaching sequences: (i) an argumentative writing workshop for conceptual…

A student's first introduction to engineering and technology is typically through high school science labs. Unfortunately, in many high schools, science labs often make use of antiquated tools that fail to deliver exciting lab content. As a result, many students are turned off by science, fail to excel on standardized science exams, and do not…

This report describes the origin and development of CESAME (The Center for Science and Mathematics Education) at Stony Brook University. The analysis identifies key ingredients in areas of personnel, funding, organizational structures, educational priorities, collaboration, and institutionalization. After a discussion of relevant issues in…

The efficacy of clay modeling compared with cat dissection for human muscle identification was examined over two semesters at LaGuardia Community College in Queens, NY. The 181 students in 10 sections in this study were randomly distributed into control (cat dissection) and experimental (clay modeling) groups, and the results of the muscle…

We tested the effectiveness of hands-on nighttime laboratories that challenged student misconceptions, using a new assessment exam to measure learning in a nonmajor introductory astronomy class at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. We were able to increase learning at the 8.0 sigma level on one of the Moon phase objectives that was addressed in a…

In this report, the author shares her perspective on ten years of science-rich programming for high school youth at the American Museum of Natural History. This report includes: (1) A discussion of the theory of action and the rationale that underlies the AMNH youth programs; (2) A description of three of the programs that have been offered and…