For many students biochemistry is a demanding course because they are expected to apply previously learned foundational concepts to new biological contexts. These foundational concepts serve as a scaffold onto which to build threshold concepts such as the physical basis of interactions. Unfortunately, many students possess misconceptions or gaps…

Although international school systems and resources can differ from those in the UK, it is always useful to have an informed worldview of practice in primary science. The COVID-19 pandemic has inevitably changed the ways in which pupils around the world have access to knowledge. Furthermore, it has changed the ways in which teachers globally…

This article presents the development, description, application, and discussion of an analytical framework to examine students' drawings of scientific concepts and processes. Student-generated representation, particularly drawing, is increasingly emphasised as an important learning strategy to help students reason, explain, and demonstrate their…

Environmental Health (EH) is an essential profession for protecting human health and yet as a discipline it is under-recognised, overlooked and misunderstood. Too few students undertake EH studies, culminating in a dearth of qualified Environmental Health Officers (EHOs) in Australia. A major deterrent to students enrolling in EH courses is a lack…

Introductory-level laboratory courses provide students with hands-on experience using the discipline's tools and theories. These courses often rely on recipe-based experiments due to the constraints of large enrollments, short lab periods, and the desire to minimize complexity. In addition, covering a breadth of topics can lead to a fragmented…

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…

This paper describes a non-classical logic course primarily indicated for graduate students in electrical engineering and energy engineering. The content of this course is based on the vision that it is not enough for a student to indefinitely accumulate knowledge; it is necessary to explore all the occasions to update, deepen, and enrich that…

To create rich learning experiences, it is important to engage students from the very beginning of a course and lay the foundation for constructing a community of active learners. The activities described here using "organism cards" connect students' previous knowledge to course goals and address key themes in biology while initiating…

Citizens need the capability to conduct their own inquiry projects so that they can make sense of claims about new energy policies, health remedies, or financial opportunities. To develop the lifelong capability to grapple with these dilemmas, we report on ways to design precollege units that engage students in realistic, personally relevant…

Many students find product prediction in ozonolysis reactions of alkenes and alkynes difficult, and they often have greater difficulty discerning the starting compounds when presented with ozonolysis products. The mnemonic device suggested here can help students figure out what the ozonolysis product (or products) will be. Once mastered, this…

Modeling, like inquiry more generally, is not a single method, but rather a complex suite of strategies. Philosophers of biology, citing the diverse aims, interests, and disciplinary cultures of biologists, argue that modeling is best understood in the context of its epistemic aims and cognitive payoffs. In the science education literature,…

A mnemonic device, the energy pie, is presented that provides relationships between thermodynamic potentials ("U," "H," "G," and "A") and other sets of variables that carry energy units, "TS" and "PV." Methods are also presented in which the differential expressions for the potentials and the corresponding Maxwell relations follow from the energy…

Malachite and verdigris, two copper-based pigments, are synthesized in this experiment intended for use in a general chemistry laboratory. The preparation of egg tempera paint from malachite is also described. All procedures can be done with a magnetic stir plate, standard glassware present in any first-year laboratory, and household chemicals.…

Science notebooks are an individual portfolio of a child's development and comprehension over the course of each unit as well as the entire year. Using notebooks reflectively in inquiry learning enables students to review their own ideas about a topic while creating opportunities for teachers to make formative assessments. Teacher reviews of…

Learning the 20 standard amino acids is an essential component of an introductory course in biochemistry. Later in the course, the students study metabolism and learn about various catabolic and anabolic pathways involving amino acids. Learning new material or concepts often is easier if one can connect the new material to what one already knows;…