The nature and cause of the phases of the moon are widely misunderstood. Perhaps the problem is a general decline in scientific literacy, or maybe it is the loss of direct and regular observation of the moon in society generally. Many people do not see the moon as a half-illuminated sphere. Adults are often surprised to realize that the moon can…

Recently, the physics education community has taken a keen interest in modernising physics education. However, while topics in modern physics have great potential to engage students, these topics are abstract and hard-to-visualise. Therefore, many students hold mistaken pictures and misconceptions, which can impede learning. In this article, we…

The 2017 Total Solar Eclipse (TSE2017) will occur on August 21 in the continental United States, bringing totality to this area for the first time since 1979. The Moon's umbra will traverse from Oregon to South Carolina in about 90 minutes, bringing an eerie darkness to 14 states coast-to-coast and a partial eclipse to every part of the country…

Along-standing energy lab involves dropping bouncy balls and measuring their rebound heights on successive bounces. The lab demonstrates a situation in which the mechanical energy of a system is not conserved. Although students enjoyed the lab, the author wanted to deepen their thinking about energy, including the connections to motion, with a new…

This article presents four practical principles that lead to enhanced word-meaning instruction in the elementary grades. The authors, a collaborative team of researchers and classroom teachers, identified and developed these principles and related instructional activities during a three-year vocabulary instruction research project. The principles…

Based on a study with six elementary school teachers and 115 students in grades 3, 4, and 5, this article discusses ways that teachers might support an understanding of variable as students explore pattern-finding activities. The practices emerged from interviews with teachers and a yearlong observation of teaching algebraic thinking during an…

The Moon is an ever-present subject of observation, and it is a recurring topic in the science curriculum from kindergarten's basic observations through graduate courses' mathematical analyses of its orbit. How do students come to comprehend Earth's nearest neighbor? What is needed for them to understand the lunar phases and other phenomena and…

The use of "radar charts" is an increasingly popular way to present spatial data in a visually interesting format. Some authors recommend using "filled radar charts" to compare the performance of observational units. Filled radar charts are not appropriate for such comparisons because the size of the area within the polygon is not invariant to the…

Magic tricks produce awe and wonderment. Why not use magic as a pedagogical approach? This paper presents the magic of science through the science of magic. (Contains 2 figures.)

Administrators at many colleges and universities have had online courses at their institutions for many years, now. One of the hidden challenges about online courses is that they tend to be observed and evaluated far less frequently than their face-to-face course counterparts. This is party due to the fact that many of us administrators today…

During a recent theme on "Ourselves," Laura Mooney's class focused on height and looking at similarities and differences between a range of objects. This involved not only looking at each other, but also linked to their self-portrait development, where they had been learning about their facial features and comparing them to other…

Digital games offer an appealing environment for assessing student proficiencies, including skills and misconceptions in a diagnostic setting. This paper proposes a dynamic Bayesian network modeling approach for observations of student performance from an educational video game. A Bayesian approach to model construction, calibration, and use in…

Academic developers are often positioned as intermediaries who wield value-neutral tools--languages, models, and techniques--in service of decidedly non-neutral institutional goals. We challenge the value of perpetuating the ideal of the neutrality of academic developers and their tools by examining the ways in which our resources and approaches…

At present in mainland China, competition in education has become excessive; competition has been increasing, and a competitive mentality is on the rise. The formative causes of excess competition in education are complex; with both practical and conceptual causes. Its roots can be traced to intensifying social competition, a one-sided…

Although inquiry is more engaging and results in more meaningful learning (Minner, Levy, and Century 2010) than traditional science classroom instruction, actually involving students in the process is difficult. Furthermore, many students have misconceptions about Earth's seasons, which are supported by students' prior knowledge of heat sources.…