Thermal cameras have shown to have utility in secondary school classrooms and undergraduate courses. In this paper, the author argues for their potential in the primary school classroom and presents a range of activities that can be undertaken with thermal cameras (or supplied images). With limited access in mind, the activities in this paper have…

On September 21, 1922, an eclipse of the Sun at Wallal in north-west Australia provided definitive proof that Einstein's theory of gravity is correct. By proving that space is elastic, it paved the way for the discovery of gravitational waves in 2015, in which Australia also played a major role. David Blair, Jyoti Kaur, and Anastasia Popkova are…

The demand for improving student interest in science has increased efforts toward teaching Einstein's theory of general relativity in schools. Research has already shown that teaching Einsteinian gravity at the secondary level is feasible, however, appropriate resources must be readily available for science teachers to make Einsteinian gravity…

This paper, presented in three parts, overviews the current understandings of the Earth System and the relatively recent interdisciplinary field of Earth System Science (ESS) from a school education perspective. The representation of ESS in the Australian Curriculum is explored through the Cross Curriculum Priority area of Sustainability and the…

The natural sciences, by their very nature, are based on the exploration of the physical world, and digital mobile devices are considered appropriate to support this exploration (Suárez et al., 2018) since they offer the tools that make this investigation more accessible but also ubiquitous (Crompton et al., 2017). Inquiry-based learning is a…

Most international curricula require students to develop conceptual and procedural understandings along with developing an understanding about the nature of science. Moreover, science education endeavours to produce scientifically literate citizens capable of making informed decisions about the social-scientific issues in their everyday lives;…

Senior secondary students were tasked with generating slowmation representations of biological processes they had already learned about during Year 11 VCE biology. The slowmation task therefore connects work with representations to review of course material. Results indicate that students negotiated between the textbook (and some teacher-specific…

Education for sustainability -- understood as efforts to equip people with the knowledge and skills necessary to make environmental, social and economic decisions that consider the needs of present and future generations -- has been incorporated in the official curriculum of Australia as a 'cross-curriculum priority'. This research sought to…

If you think physics is only for older children, think again. Much of the playtime of young children is filled with exploring--and wondering about and informally investigating--the way objects, especially toys, move. How forces affect objects, including: change in position, motion, and shape are fundamental to the big ideas in physics. This…

Constructing Direct Current (DC) electric circuits is simple and engaging for primary students, but that is not all there is to learning about electricity. Mandatory learning in the Australian Curriculum: Science (ACARA, 2018) expects Year 6 students to explain some of the processes underlying electric circuits. The abstract nature of key…

Students often hold misconceptions about insulation, largely because they put on clothes to keep themselves warm--at least in winter in the cooler regions of Australia. The following activity is designed to identify students' misconceptions about insulation and provide an engaging, evidence-based activity to help address these misconceptions using…

Through the science curriculum, teachers can use students' passion for screen content to motivate them to explore innovative new ways to bring their science learning to life through video making. Communicating science concepts using multimodal literacies can be a particularly powerful way for students to learn about science, especially when they…

Flotation is usually taught in Indian schools after students have been introduced to the concepts of mass, density, pressure, volume and buoyancy. This paper describes an attempt to teach the principle of flotation to a class of sixth graders--who had not yet been taught these concepts--so they could understand (and perhaps, arrive at) Archimedes'…

The Australian Curriculum (n.d.) describes chemistry as having three interrelated strands, Science Inquiry Skills, Science as a Human Endeavour and Science Understanding. It also states "... the three strands of the Australian Curriculum: Science should be taught in an integrated way". This article will explore a model for integrating…

Originally called Cognitive Acceleration through Science Education, Thinking Science is a program of 30 lessons, usually delivered in Years 7 and 8, that has been shown to improve learner outcomes in science, maths and English. Over recent years, it has grown in popularity in Australia and was the subject of an ARC-funded research project at the…