Our research conducted two iterations of a mixed methods design-based research project with 87 youths, to improve learners' collaboration and knowledge-building by using collaboration scripts during learning-on-the-move within a mobile computing intervention. We investigated how the informal mobile augmented reality app influenced children's…

An understanding of acid-base reactions is necessary for success in chemistry courses and relevant to careers outside of chemistry, yet research has demonstrated that students often struggle with learning acid-base reaction mechanisms in organic chemistry. One response to this challenge is the development of educational applications to support…

Central to evolution is the concept of a common ancestry from which all life has emerged over immense time scales, but learning and teaching temporal aspects of evolution remain challenging. This study investigated students' interpretation of evolutionary time when engaging with a multi-touch tabletop application called DeepTree, a dynamic…

This article integrated inquiry behaviors and a guided learning map (gMap) into a mobile app called Ubiquitous-Physics (U-Physics), which helps students to explore inclined plane phenomena in authentic contexts. The article investigated inquiry behaviors such as interpreting graphs, applying formulas, drawing conclusions, and peer collaboration,…

Objectives: To describe the implementation of a hybrid and an online active-learning-based science activity originally designed for face-to-face instruction. The goal was to verify if students used appropriate science practices while engaged in a problem solution through hybrid and fully online modalities. Epistemic practices are important markers…

Data collection is a fundamental skill in science education, one that students generally practice in a controlled setting using equipment only available in the classroom laboratory. However, using smartphones with their built-in sensors and often free apps, many fundamental experiments can be performed outside the laboratory. Taking advantage of…

Children's learning of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is important for their achievement in related fields. Before formal schooling, families can expose children to STEM by sharing knowledge and influencing children's use of learning tools, including media. We investigated whether parent attitudes towards STEM media and…

In their role as careful observers of nature, citizen scientists are helping to "answer the most challenging ecological and environmental questions, addressing issues that affect everyday lives" (McKinley et al. 2015). They help answer these questions by providing scientists with a large pool of data that can be analyzed (National…

In this study, we explored how a teacher used a new mobile application that enables students to collect data inside and outside the classroom, and then use the data to create scientific explanations by using claim-evidence-reasoning framework. Previous technologies designed to support scientific explanations focused on how these programs improve…

In this article, Karen Bucci describes how she incorporated her iPad with the wireless SmartScope iGO microscope and Wi-Viewer app to teach her fourth-grade class the science module "Ecosystems" by National Science Resources Center's Science and Technology for Children (STC) (1996, 2005). A main idea in the unit is the importance of…

This article provides an overview of several studies in which the authors draw on social media, storytelling, and mobile apps to help children playfully develop their own approaches to science. The authors detail their efforts to strike a balance between the structure needed to promote science learning and the flexibility needed to nurture…

Despite successive waves of technological innovation being rapidly adopted by schools, teaching methods and curriculum designs have been slow to evolve in response to the affordances offered by an increasing array of digital devices. This project explored student thinking, problem solving and collaboration when using digital tablets (iPads) for a…

The purpose of this study was to see if a relationship existed between American College Testing (ACT) scores (i.e., English, reading, mathematics, science reasoning, and composite) and student success in a computer applications course at a Mississippi community college. The study showed that while the ACT scores were excellent predictors of…

In this study, smartphone was used to alter the traditional procedure by involving students in active learning experiences prior to the laboratory meeting. The researcher surveyed students' view on the effect of using smartphone to enhance learning in the general physics laboratory. The use of smartphone was evaluated by having 120 students who…

In this educational study, the research problem was that each semester a variable number of community college students are unable to complete an introductory computer applications course at a community college in the state of Mississippi with a successful course letter grade. Course failure, or non-success, at the collegiate level is a negative…