This research aims to design a sample Arduino-assisted robotics and coding activity in accordance with the 5E instructional model. Also, it aims to set an example for how technology is integrated into science courses, especially in the structuring of abstract and hard-to-understand concepts in science teaching. The activity provides guidance to…

This study examined whether children 4- and 5-years-old (N = 156) can revise a physical science misconception from different types of picture books. A realistic fiction book and informational book with identical images matched in word count and reading difficulty level were compared to a control book about plants. In the pretest and posttest,…

It is now required for teachers to incorporate computational thinking (CT) into their science classes. Our research modifies the existing structure of a science methods course for preservice teachers to include CT via modeling and simulations. In the first study, preservice teachers were introduced to the basics of coding through an Hour of Code…

One aim of school science instruction is to help students become adaptive problem solvers. Though successful at structuring novice problem solving, step-by-step problem-solving frameworks may also constrain students' thinking. This study utilises a paradigm established by Heckler [(2010). Some consequences of prompting novice physics students to…

Mechanistic reasoning is an epistemic practice central within science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines. Although there has been some work on mechanistic reasoning in the research literature and standards documents, much of this work targets domain-general characterizations of mechanistic reasoning; this study provides…

Biochemistry instructors often use external representations--ranging from static diagrams to dynamic animations and from simplistic, stylized illustrations to more complex, realistic presentations--to help their students visualize abstract cellular and molecular processes, mechanisms, and components. However, relatively little is known about how…

This study investigates how elite Turkish high school physics students claim to approach learning physics when they are simultaneously (i) engaged in a curriculum that led to significant gains in their epistemological sophistication and (ii) subject to a high-stakes college entrance exam. Students reported taking surface (rote) approaches to…

This study investigated high school students' understanding of fundamental chemistry concepts--states of matter, melting, evaporation, condensation, boiling, and vapor pressure, in relation to their understanding of the particulate nature of matter. A sample of six students (four females and two males) enrolled in a second year chemistry course at…

Students' conceptual understanding of Newton's third law has been the subject of numerous studies. These studies have often pointed out the importance of addressing the concept of interaction in teaching Newtonian mechanics. In this study, teachers were interviewed in order to examine how they understand interaction and use it in their…

The effectiveness of teaching academic courses such as mathematics and science in a foreign language has been investigated by several international studies in the literature. Even though the studies conducted have brought up contradictory results, most of them reveal that learning academic courses through a foreign language medium may pose…