In the study, the effect of Predict-Observe-Explain (POE) activities carried out within the scope of argumentation-supported learning method on the detection of the conceptual understandings of the pre-service science teachers about "Solutions: Dissolving-Melting" was examined. Based on this main purpose, a case study was applied in the…

Germinating a seed is presumably the first experiment made by a child in his life. So, it has an important place both in child's scientific experience and understanding. Despite the significance of the experiment, the literature indicates that students possess various misconceptions related to the concepts of seed and seed germination. So, it is…

The aim of the study is to improve students' nature of science understandings while integrating nature of science aspects into appropriate science-technology-engineering-mathematics (STEM) activities. In this study, four STEM-based contextualized nature of science activities are developed during the 4 weeks study. The sample of this study consists…

Teaching cosmology at the undergraduate or high school level requires simplifications and analogies, and inevitably brings the teacher into contact with at least one of the pedagogical interpretations of the expanding Universe. The by far most popular interpretation holds that galaxies in an expanding Universe are stationary, while space itself…

The author believes that science within a primary school is there to enable children to be interested in the world around them and to help them start to understand it, getting them interested in the very basics, and pointing out things around them that they had not considered, so that they can start asking the questions 'why' and 'how' and 'what'…

Despite its familiarity and the fact that it becomes a formal area of study in early upper primary grades, optics remains a cognitive challenge for young as well as advanced learners, not only because much of it is counter-intuitive but also because its conceptual comprehension involves negotiating the vocabulary and graphical symbolism involved…

In this fourth and fifth grade activity, students become comfortable with the concept that light-years are a measure of distance, not time, and discover how we are looking back in time when we look at stars. Since the enormous distances in space can make astronomical studies even more confusing, students explore the meaning of a light-year by…

Electricity can be a fun topic in a primary school class. It includes many practical experiments and links to real life contexts. However, teachers can feel daunted by the subject as they think they do not know enough about the science behind it to answer off-topic questions. The reason for the difficulty is that much of the science takes place…

Teaching children about circuits and the way electricity works is a "tricky business" because it is invisible. Just imagine all eyes are on the teacher as he or she produces for the class what looks like a ping-pong ball and then, with a wave of their hand, the incredible happens! This wonderful white sphere begins to glow red and a…

Chemical reaction kinetics and equilibrium are essential core concepts of chemistry but are challenging topics for many students, both at the high school and undergraduate university level. Visualization at the molecular level is valuable to aid understanding of reaction kinetics and equilibrium. This activity provides a discovery-based method to…

Research on conceptual change assumes that students enter a science classroom with prior(mis-)conceptions. When being exposed to instruction, students are supposed to develop or change their conceptions to (more) scientific concepts. As a consequence, instruction typically concentrates on appropriate examples demonstrating that students'…

This paper reports on an investigation on the use of an analogy activity and seeks to provide evidence of whether the activity enables students to change alternative conceptions towards views more in accord with scientific views for aspects of solution chemistry. We were also interested in how robust any change was and whether these changes in…

Understanding the particulate nature of matter (PNM) is vital for participating in many areas of science. We assessed 11 students' atomic/molecular-level explanations of real-world phenomena after their participation in a modelling-based PNM unit. All 11 students offered a scientifically acceptable model regarding atomic/molecular behaviour in…

Looking after pets provides several benefits in terms of children's social interactions, and factual and conceptual knowledge about these animals. In this study we investigated effects of rearing experiences on children's factual knowledge and alternative conceptions about animals. Data obtained from 1,541 children and 7,705 drawings showed very…

Recommends ways that teachers can scrutinize and modify their science teaching to avoid student misconceptions by focusing on clarifying conceptions, analyzing understanding, and making changes. (YDS)