Stimulating interest in science at an early age is important for STEM education. This work details an educational activity utilizing the anthocyanins found in butterfly pea flowers ("Clitoria ternatea"). This activity was developed for use in official classroom settings, online, and/or at-home with parental or educator guidance. Primary…

This article provides and reflects on an original lesson plan for engaging high school, undergraduate, or graduate students in learning fundamental concepts of environmental ethics. Implementation of this lesson plan effectively promoted critical analysis, reflection, and communication of environmental ethics issues in a seminar for second-year…

It has recently been suggested that pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) has a concept-specific nature, beyond the topic-specific level of PCK. This paper reports a case study of three pre-service teachers' reported PCK about three fundamental concepts within the topic of electrostatics, namely electrostatic force, electric field and electric field…

Many South African educational institutions are adopting learning management systems (LMS) into their daily teaching and learning practice. The Western Cape Education Department piloted Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment (Moodle), an LMS for improving teaching and learning. The objective of the research reported on here was to…

Calculator usage in the United States is prevalent in secondary education classrooms. There has been a decline in mathematics achievement in national and international assessments for U.S. students. The U.S. historically introduces the calculator in mathematics classrooms earlier than several other countries, including: Singapore, Ireland, South…

A hands-on educational module was created to illustrate the scope of chemical engineering. Students are taught fundamental concepts that they integrate in a laboratory experience designing and fabricating a 'plant-on-a-chip' microfluidic device capable of continuous processing of reactive flows. Students gain insight into chemical engineering…

In this paper, we discuss the relevance of 'Grundvorstellungen' (GVs), a didactical category to analyze students' mental models in comparison to the intended mathematical meanings in the context of Linear Algebra and Analytic Geometry. Diagnostic tasks were used to reveal students' conceptual understanding in this field of expertise. In…

This study investigated high school students' understanding of fundamental chemistry concepts - states of matter, melting, evaporation, condensation, boiling, and vapor pressure, in relation to their understanding of the particulate nature of matter. A sample of six students (four females and two males) enrolled in a second year chemistry course…

Although research has shown that student engagement is strongly related to performance on assessment tasks, especially for traditionally underserved subgroups of students, increasing student engagement has not been the goal of standardized tests of content knowledge. Recent state and federal policies, however, are changing the assessment…

Threshold concepts (TCs) are concepts that, when mastered, represent a transformed understanding of a discipline without which the learner cannot progress. We have undertaken a process involving more than 75 faculty members and 50 undergraduate students to identify a working list of TCs for biochemistry. The process of identifying TCs for…

Nanoscale science and technology (NST) is an important new field in modern science. In the current study, we seek to answer the question: "What are the essential concepts of NST that should be taught in high school"? A 3-round Delphi study methodology was applied based on 2 communities of experts in nanotechnology research and science…

The objective of this paper is to discuss how blind students learn basic concepts of probability using the tactile model proposed by Vita (2012). Among the activities were part of the teaching sequence "Jefferson's Random Walk", in which students built a tree diagram (using plastic trays, foam cards, and toys), and pictograms in 3D…

This issue of "Policy Insights" provides a review of the past five years of the cost and value of higher education, which have gained increased policymaker, consumer, and media attention. The Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) has worked with four of its member states (Hawai'i, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington) to…

Advanced Placement economics leaves thousands of high school students with a misleading impression of modern economics. The courses fail to cover key sources of growth and prosperity, including private ownership, dynamic competition, and entrepreneurship. The tools of public choice economics are totally ignored. Government is modeled as a…

Digital Storytelling (DST) is a powerful tool for teaching complex concepts. DSTs are typically used in the humanities but several papers have shown that they are also a wonderful tool for the sciences because they are more involving, contextualized and can easily lead to deeper understanding. In the classical use of DST the story is the content,…