In this paper we present the "Sky on Earth" project funded in 2008 by the Italian Ministry of Instruction, Research and University, inside its annual public outreach education program. The project's goal was to realise a stable and open-access astronomical garden, where children, teachers and citizens could be engaged in investigations…

Student learning in science is improved by authentic personal experience of research projects and the publication of findings. Graduate students do this, but it is uncommon to find student research and publishing in high school science programs. We describe here the Student Research and Publishing Program (SRPP) established at International School…

Cognitive Acceleration through Science Education (CASE) on the Sunshine Coast is growing rapidly. It has expanded from one inaugural Year 8 class in 2012 to the current state of play with the involvement of over 3,000 CASE students from eleven Sunshine Coast State High Schools. It is being taught by more than seventy CASE teachers with…

Responsible research and innovation (RRI) stands at the center of several EU projects and represents a contemporary view of the connection between science and society. The goal of RRI is to create a shared understanding of the appropriate behaviors of governments, business and NGOs which are central to building trust and confidence of the public…

Many high school students are faced with the dilemma of "what next?" as they go through their final years at school. With new-economy jobs becoming more complex and career paths increasingly convoluted, the decision-making process is no simple task. What do these jobs and careers entail? How does what they are studying in school relate…

School science laboratory classes and hands-on public engagement activities share many common aims and objectives in terms of science learning and literacy. This article describes the development and evaluation of a microbiology public engagement activity, "The Good, the Bad and the Algae", from a school laboratory activity. The school…

Much is known about high school students' attitudes towards science but there is almost no research on what passion for science might look like and how it might be manifested. This exploratory case study took advantage of a unique group of highly gifted science students participating in the Australian Science Olympiad (N = 69) to explore their…

The Université des Lycéens (University of High-School Students) was set up in France in order to make scientific knowledge more relevant to students and to combat a growing lack of interest in science among students. The scheme involves a series of lectures to students by scientists, each followed by a debate. The organisers hope that putting…

The Learning Environment Inventory (LEI) was administered to tenth-grade biology classes (N=572) in urban and kibbutz district schools in Israel. Findings indicated that seven out of nine scales of the LEI yield significant differences in scores for urban and kibbutz samples indicating a more positive learning climate in the kibbutz. (Author/DS)