The creation of new knowledge in the form of scientific models is a cornerstone of the process of science. In physics laboratory instruction, students are very often stuck in a confirmatory mindset; they have been conditioned to believe that the role of experimentation in the classroom and in the world is to verify known facts. This mindset is…

Many efforts to reform science educational standards and structure have placed an emphasis on directing learners to communicate about concepts using external representations (ERs). Techniques to develop competencies with ERs often ask learners to develop understanding outside of a physical context while concurrently making connections back to the…

This study employed a qualitative case study design to explore participants' perspective on learning STEM subjects through immersive mobile technologies. Immersive mobile learning (IML) is the learning approach that provides learners with immersive experiences and access to educational content ubiquitously using portable electronic devices.…

This is potentially the first study that addressed the Puerto Rican high school students' chemistry knowledge acquisition using traditional teaching and Physics Education Technology. The problem addressed by this quantitative comparative quasi-experimental study was that students' showed a disadvantage on chemistry knowledge acquisition over other…

Scientific disciplines including mathematics, physics, and chemistry tend to adopt online resources, including websites and web applications, to demonstrate physical experiments and simulate scientific phenomena that are hard to observe and investigate in real world. The present study examined the existing collections of the websites and web…

This dissertation is the product of several individual multi-disciplinary investigations that cover a variety of topics in mathematics, physics, geology, and geoscience education. The first chapter formulates a better understanding of the timings, magma source, and relationships between dikes and associated magmatic bodies of the Red Bluff…

Physical science instruction often involves modeling natural systems, such as electricity that possess particles which are invisible to the unaided eye. The effect of these particles' motion is observable, but the particles are not directly observable to humans. Simulations have been developed in physics, chemistry and biology that, under certain…

Games in science education is emerging as a popular topic of scholarly inquiry. The National Research Council recently published a report detailing a research agenda for games and science education entitled "Learning Science Through Computer Games and Simulations" (2011). The report recommends moving beyond typical proof-of-concept…

Over the past decade, there has been a dramatic rise in online delivery of higher education in the United States. Recent developments in web technology and access to the internet have led to a vast increase in online courses. For people who work during the day and whose complicated lives prevent them from taking courses on campus, online courses…

This study examines the facilitative effects of embodiment of a complex internal anatomical structure through three-dimensional ("3-D") interactivity in a virtual reality ("VR") program. Since Shepard and Metzler's influential 1971 study, it has been known that 3-D objects (e.g., multiple-armed cube or external body parts) are visually and…