Background: Research on cognitive effects of educational games in general shows promising results. However, there are large variations in learning outcomes between individual educational games. Research on the design process and different design elements of educational games has led to some interesting directions, but some design aspects remain…

The aim of this study is to design various instructional materials to teach biological systems in a 'Systems in Our Body' unit to 6th grade students with visual impairment (SVI) and to evaluate the effectiveness of these materials. In the study, a design-based research model was used. In the first stage, individual learning needs of SVI and their…

This study focuses on an educational game titled "Cellverse," a two-player cross-platform VR project intended to teach high school biology students about cell structure and function. In "Cellverse," players work in pairs to explore a human lung cell and diagnose and treat a dangerous genetic disorder. "Cellverse" is…

We describe an innovative, semester-long course in biology and communication skills for master's degree students in biostatistics. The primary goal of the course is to make the connection between biological science and statistics more explicit. The secondary goals are to teach oral and written communication skills in an appropriate context for…

Learning the periodic table of elements can pose a challenge for students due to the complex organization and relationships between the different elements. Game-based interventions have been shown in past studies to be one of the feasible ways to overcome this challenge. In this research, a tabletop game, called "Little Periodic" was…

Since the 1980s, studies have increasingly shown that traditional teaching causes a deterioration in students' conceptions of physics and of learning physics. The present study examined the influence of an intervention on high school students' conceptions of physics and of learning physics. The intervention included two components: a unique design…

In secondary science education, students often do not feel engaged with the scientific concepts that are taught, which hinders conceptual learning. This lack of engagement can be overcome by fictional placemaking. Therefore, the purpose of our design-based research is to explore how the creation and use of fictional places lead to meaningful…

The purpose of this study is to introduce a science module that was designed based on the ASSURE model and to present its implementation process. The study was conducted with the participation of 21 students attending a private school during the 2020-2021 academic year. The instructional plan focused on the concept of "Relationship between…

Purpose: This study aims to investigate how primary teachers, when taking part in digital didactic design (D[superscript 3]) workshops at the Digital Laboratory Centre at the university, develop their insights about how digital tools can be designed and further used in their teaching of science. The research question addresses how D[superscript 3]…

[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Curriculum Development: Theory into Design.] We argue that teaching learning sequence (TLS) design needs to be further developed through the explicit articulation of methodology, which comprises the theoretical commitments regarding research and how those give rise to methods for design,…

The preponderance of visually oriented and visually complex concepts and information in science classrooms poses significant challenges to learning among students with visual impairment (VI). It is acknowledged that the good quality of practical work promotes the engagement and interest and curiosity of students as well as developing a range of…

Systems thinking is the ability to reason about biological systems in terms of their characteristics and can assist students in developing a coherent understanding of biology. Literature reports about several recommendations regarding teaching systems thinking, while it seems that systems thinking has not reached classroom practice. The main aim…

This study examined the effectiveness of instructional design to teach science concepts to visually impaired students. The study was conducted through case study. The study consisted of three stages. The first stage identified the visually impaired students' learning needs related to the concepts of the structure of matter. The second stage…

Despite the need for public understanding about groundwater resources, groundwater is among those topics that instructors most struggle to teach at pre-college and college levels. Although constructivist theories suggest student-held conceptions can be used as teaching tools for active learning, there remains a question about how to draw out and…

Over the last decade, course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) have been recognized as a way to improve undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education by engaging students in authentic discovery. CUREs have been shown to have positive benefits similar to traditional undergraduate research experiences;…