Pre-laboratory tasks are a best practice for preparing students for learning in the laboratory. Virtual labs, which use virtual reality to place students in an emulation of a physical laboratory where they have the capacity to manipulate equipment and materials as approximations of scientific practice, are emerging as an alternative to the…

Virtual experiments are beneficial and effective learning activities providing the opportunity to investigate the relationship between the experimental findings and the theories. There exist several advantages of using virtual experiments, including, among other things: 7/24 availability, opportunity of unlimited iterations, and working with an…

A common problem in many schools is the lack of equipment and materials in their science laboratories due to both limited budget available to the school and high maintenance cost of the lab. The latest technological advancements provide great opportunities for schools to go over the budget and cost issues by using 3D virtual learning environments…

Virtual Reality (VR) is an artificial environment that is created with software and presented to the user in such a way that the user suspends belief and accepts it as a real environment. Users interact with VR applications through on-screen toggles or with optional additional devices such as controllers, keyboard and mouse. However, when it comes…

The 21st century student learns and communicates in the virtual world. In order to meet the individual instructional needs of the students, virtual science laboratories should be researched to accomplish the goal. This study evaluated the effectiveness of a virtual chemistry laboratory in enhancing students' conceptual understanding as a…

This study investigated the effect of an inquiry-based computer simulation modeling (ICoSM) instructional approach on pre-service science teachers' understanding of homeostasis and its related concepts, and their perceived design features of the ICoSM and simulation that enhanced their conceptual understanding of these concepts. Fifty pre-service…

This exploratory study examined the influence of different virtual manipulative (VM) types on the nature of student pairs' techno-mathematical discourse (TMD). Three fifth-grade student pairs participated in 9 sessions of mathematics instruction using VMs. The study compared three VM types: linked, pictorial, and tutorial. Students' levels of…

The aims of this study are: (1) to develop iPad-based computer simulations called iSimPhysics that can help people learn Newtonian physics concepts; and (2) to assess its educational benefits and pedagogical usefulness. To facilitate learning, iSimPhysics visualizes abstract physics concepts, and allows for conducting a series of computer…

This paper presents a Simulation-based interactive Virtual ClassRoom web system (SVCR: www.vclasie.com) powered by the state-of-the-art cloud computing technology from Google SVCR integrates popular free open-source math, science and engineering simulations and provides functions such as secure user access control and management of courses,…

Computer technology, when coupled with reform-based teaching practices, has been shown to be an effective way to support student learning of mathematics. The quality of the technology itself, as well as how it is used, impacts how much students learn. Interactive simulations are dynamic virtual environments similar to virtual manipulatives that…

Secondary school science teachers have a wide variety of teaching approaches available to them as they support the development of their students' scientific literacy and knowledge of, and about, science. Information technologies, on computers and other devices, offer potentially valuable ways to supplement this "toolkit" of teaching approaches.…

Abstraction is a key concept in CS, one of the most fundamental ideas underlying CS and its practice. However, teaching this soft concept to novices is a very difficult task, as discussed by many CSE experts. This paper discusses this issue, and suggests a general framework for teaching abstraction in CS to novices, a framework that would fit into…

In schools, learning spatial geometry is usually dependent upon a student's ability to visualize three dimensional geometric configurations from two dimensional drawings. Such a process, however, often creates visual obstacles which are unique to spatial geometry. Useful software programs which realistically depict three dimensional geometric…

This study examined the influence of virtual manipulatives on different achievement groups during a teaching experiment in four fifth-grade classrooms. During a two-week unit focusing on two rational number concepts (fraction equivalence and fraction addition with unlike denominators) one low achieving, two average achieving, and one high…

This article reports a subset of findings from a larger study centered on designing a series of six digital learning objects to help Grade 5 (age 10-12) students begin to consider the nature of models (understood as the physical or mental representation of objects, phenomena, or processes), the particle nature of matter, and the behavior of…