The ability to design and interpret controlled experiments is an important scientific process skill and a common objective of science standards. Numerous intervention studies have investigated how the control-of-variables-strategy (CVS) can be introduced to students. However, a meta-analysis of 72 intervention studies found that the opportunity to…

Powerful online visualizations can make unobservable scientific phenomena visible and improve student understanding. Instead, they often confuse or mislead students. To clarify the impact of molecular visualizations for middle school students we explored three design variations implemented in a Web-based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE) unit on…

Performed a variance analysis of the relation between the amount of time students spend experiencing hands-on science and science achievement. Reports that students who engaged in hands-on activities frequently scored significantly higher on a standardized test of science achievement than students who did not. (Author/JRH)

Tests in each science area were developed around six laboratory tasks. Students had to plan an investigation, collect and organize data, and formulate conclusions based on calculations and graphs. Over 1,000 students from 32 Ohio schools formed the sample for this study. Data are presented by skill and by task. An analysis for gender and school…

Early adolescents may lack the cognitive and metacognitive skills necessary for effective inquiry learning. In particular, they are likely to have a nonnormative mental model of multivariable causality in which effects of individual variables are neither additive nor consistent. Described here is a software-based intervention designed to…