This paper offers an exploratory account of the Nature of Geography (NOG) for geography education. The proposed NOG framework describes geography through the theoretical offerings of the family resemblance approach across the dimensions of: aims and values; knowledge; methods and methodological rules; practices; and geography as a…

The international bestseller "How Do We Learn?" decodes years of cognitive science research into actionable strategies for K-12 teachers, curricula designers, and administrators. You'll discover how classic and emerging findings can transform pedagogy by pointing at practices that take advantage of the innate structures of the human…

Teaching about drawbridges allows students to apply skills they have learned in math and science, while also being creative with design and the use of available materials. Students can be exposed to current and ancient designs. Today's drawbridges are beginning to look their age and are in need of updating and modernization. New bridges are being…

A spinning top or a spinning hard-boiled egg is fascinating to observe since both objects can remain upright for a relatively long time without falling over. If spun at sufficient speed on a horizontal surface, the spin axis rises to a vertical position and the bottom end tends to remain fixed in position on the surface. If the initial spin is…

This article considers the relationship between belief and learning science. It is argued that belief in science (as a process) needs to be distinguished from belief in particular scientific ideas and knowledge claims. Scientific knowledge is theoretical and provisional--something to be adopted for its utility, not as articles of faith. The…

Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), with new emphasis on engineering, reflects broadening definitions of scientific and technological literacy. However, engaging in science and engineering practices is necessary, but insufficient, for developing technological literacy. Just as robust scientific literacy includes a deep understanding of the…

Image modelling is a video-based teaching tool that is a combination of strobe images and video analysis. This tool can enable a qualitative and a quantitative approach to the teaching of physics, in a much more engaging and appealling way than the traditional expositive practice. In a specific scenario shown in this paper, the Ollie trick, we…

When all parts of an electric circuit are at the same potential, no electric current flows and it is said to be in "equilibrium." Otherwise, a current will flow from the higher potential parts to the lower ones, as when we make contact between the plates of a charged capacitor. The resulting discharging process towards equilibrium is a…

Science and religion are two indisputably profound and durable cultural forces with a complex history of interaction. As ASTE members are aware, these interactions often manifest themselves in classrooms and in the surrounding communities. In this essay, we encourage science teacher educators to broaden their perspectives of science-religion…

Doing science involves the development and evaluation of models. These models are not objective truths but can be understood as explanations, which scientists use to explore and reason about an aspect of the world. Learning science involves students expressing and engaging with models in the classroom. However, this learning should not be seen as…

The promise of personalized learning excites many educators, and schools are wondering how best to introduce it and how they know when they have achieved it. Rather than thinking of personalized learning as an "it" (i.e., a program that is either present or not), we might think of it as an approach to teaching and learning that has many…

Recently much attention has been paid to the history of the discovery of Hubble's law--the linear relation between the rate of recession of the remote galaxies and distance to them from Earth. Though historians of cosmology now mention several names associated with this law instead of just one, the motivation of each actor of that remarkable…

It is often difficult for students to develop an intuition about molecular processes, which occur in a realm far different from day-to-day life. For example, thermal fluctuations take on hurricane-like proportions at the molecular scale. Students need a way to visualize realistic depictions of molecular processes to appreciate them. To this end,…

A container was placed on top of a piece of white paper, and a pin positioned so that it vertically touched an outside wall of the container. Students were asked to predict the image of the pin when it was observed from the top of the container. Two scenarios of either an empty container or a container completely filled with water were considered…

Planar x-ray imaging is a ubiquitous diagnostic tool and is routinely performed to diagnose conditions as varied as bone fractures and pneumonia. The underlying principle is that the varying attenuation coefficients of air, water, tissue, bone, or metal implants within the body result in non-uniform transmission of x-ray radiation. Through the…