Scientific writing, in the form of lab notebooks, proposals, and reports, is a common element of physics lab classes. Multiweek student-designed projects are growing in popularity, especially in advanced lab courses, and writing may play a unique role in these types of courses. In prior work, we developed a framework of possible goals for writing…

Are students more engaged and do they perform better in science if their school encourages them to work on science projects, participate in science fairs, belong to a science-related club or go on science-related field trips--in addition to teaching them the mandatory science curriculum? To find out, PISA (Programme for International Student…

School science systems tend to emphasize teaching and learning about achievements of science (such as laws and theories) at the expense of providing students with opportunities to develop realistic conceptions about science and science inquiry and expertise they could use to conduct their own science inquiry projects. Among reasons for such an…

A teacher narrates from activities and discussions that arose among undergraduates and herself while doing critical explorations of mirrors. Surprised by light's behaviors, the students responded with curiosity, losing their dependence on answers as the format of school knowledge. Inadequacies in how participants supposed light works emerged in…

The nature of science (NOS) has a prominent role among the national science education content standards at all grade levels, K-12. Results from a national survey of collegiate science educators indicate the perception that the greatest contributors to preservice teachers' understanding of the nature of science were science methods courses,…