Purpose: The paper identifies, outlines, and categorises establishment and operational factors that contribute to successful agricultural on-farm demonstration. Design/Methodology/approach: The paper is based on a literature review on demonstration activities and meta-analysis of 24 original case study reports from 12 European countries. Findings:…

In this article we describe a demonstration for most of the elements from the periodic table which together constitute the show "An Elemental Spectacle: A Guided Tour of the Darker Reaches of the Periodic Table."

Picture boards as a visual support aid for in-lab demonstrator briefings were deployed for a single experiment in both the first and second year undergraduate practical classes. The boards are easy to create and provide an alternative, more accessible and 'presentation friendly' perspective of the laboratory manual associated with an experiment.…

In 2019, The Open University celebrated its 50th anniversary. For most of its fifty years it has been delivering statistics education to both specialists and non-specialists, simultaneously and at scale. A single module must deliver statistics teaching across multiple qualifications in many different disciplines which means it is not possible to…

The ability to handle chemicals safely is a key aspect of the learning development of students studying chemistry; however, there have been no previously reported investigations of the quantity of chemicals spilled by students during lab experiments. Therefore, the first part of this article reports the assessment of the volume of chemicals…

Earth wires and fuses work together in UK mains circuits to keep users safe from electric shocks and are taught in many school contexts. The subject can be quite abstract and difficult for pupils to grasp, and a simple but visually clear and direct demonstration is described which would be easy for most physics departments to build and which can…

Science and mathematics share a common purpose: to explore, understand and explain the pure beauty of our universe and how it works. Using mathematics in science enquiry can enhance children's understanding of science and also provide opportunities for children to apply their mathematical knowledge to "real" contexts. The authors…

Astro Academy: Principia is an education programme developed by the UK National Space Academy for the UK Space Agency (UKSA) and the European Space Agency (ESA). The Academy designed, constructed, flight-qualified and developed experimental procedures for a suite of physics and chemistry demonstration experiments that were conducted by ESA…

Inspired by the inclusion of a British astronaut on the International Space Station, explanations and demonstrations that lead to an understanding of how satellites stay above the Earth are described. This is a mixture of separate ideas that have been demonstrated successfully at a public exhibition of science-based activities. Although some…

Science demonstrations are often criticised for their passive nature, their gratuitous exploitation and their limited ability to develop scientific knowledge and understanding. This article is intended to present a robust defence of the use of demonstrations in the classroom by identifying some of their unique and powerful benefits--practical,…

This paper constitutes a case-study of the "science show" model of public engagement employed by a company of science communicators focused on the popularization of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subject disciplines with learner constituencies. It examines the potential of the science show to foster the interest…

Learning to use visualisation techniques in the classroom enables pupils and teachers to gain new insights into how concepts are formed and how to strengthen them, but visualisation is sometimes not what it seems. Learning by constructing meaning is a long-standing principle underpinning much of today's school science. In "Primary Science…

The Timepix hybrid silicon pixel detector has been used to investigate the inverse square law of radiation from a point source as a demonstration of the CERN [at] school detector kit capabilities. The experiment described uses a Timepix detector to detect the gamma rays emitted by an [superscript 241]Am radioactive source at a number of different…

In the light of international interest in teachers' literate identities and practices, this paper addresses the under-researched area of teachers' writing identities. It examines the multimodal interactive discursive practices at play in the writing classroom of a teacher in the UK who, in order to support the pupils, consciously positions herself…

The development of subject knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge has been the focus of much educational research and debate in recent years. Of particular interest is the process by which preservice science teachers develop pedagogical content knowledge from their subject knowledge. In the study presented here, a process of writing narrative…