Comics have an important role in non-formal learning environments. However, how comics may be effective teaching/learning activitities in formal education is an ongoing debate in literature. The purpose of this study is to create and evaluate a series of instructional comics about heat related concepts to be used as teaching/learning activities in…

During the last 10 years, cognitive science researchers have produced research findings that have great potential for increasing students' understanding of science. However, commercial publishers continue to produce textbooks and teacher's guides in traditional ways. This project developed a prototype unit which used an alternative approach to…

This article is the first of a two-part review of research on children's and adults understanding of gravity and on how best to teach gravity concepts to students and teachers. This first article concerns free fall--how and why objects fall when they are dropped. The review begins with a brief historical sketch of how these ideas were developed in…

This is the second and final part of a review of educational research on children's ideas about gravity. The first part concerned students' understanding of how and why things fall. This article picks up the trail of research studies that address students' understanding of the more complex ideas of projectile motion and orbits and examines how the…

Reports that young children in the pedestrian accident prone age range of four-eight years hold a variety of naive conceptions regarding speed. Proposes a primary science unit using a conceptual change approach. (MVL)

The superordinate problem that the Threshold Project addressed is the nature of the language and learning difficulties that South African Standard 3 (Std 3) children experience when they change from their mother tongue to English as a medium for instruction. The primary focus of the Threshold Project work in 1987 was on a section of the South…

This document contains the abstracts of most of the papers, symposia, and poster sessions presented at the 62nd Annual Conference of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST). Subject areas addressed include: teacher preparation; science, technology and society; classroom research, elementary science; process skills;…

This document contains the abstracts of most of the papers, symposia, and poster sessions presented at the 63rd Annual Conference of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST). Subject areas addressed include teacher preparation; informal settings; cognitive models; classroom practices; teaching methods; student learning;…

This document contains the abstracts of most of the papers, symposia and poster sessions presented at the 61st Annual Conference of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST). Subject areas addressed include: teacher preparation, science, technology and society; classroom research; elementary science; process skills;…