This study examines the development of the concept of the ecological niche among 10-11-year-old students and their ability to use this concept to give their opinions on the socially relevant and controversial possibility that wolf populations might be established in the mountains surrounding the school. A total of 21 elementary school students…

Informal learning environments such as Natural History Museums can introduce visitors to a variety of topics in evolution by providing accessible representations of concepts like geological time, evolutionary mechanisms, biological diversity, geological time, and fossil dating. Our study examined sixth-grade students' conceptualization of…

Framing, implementing, and engaging youth in authentic scientific inquiry are highly valued in science education; however, we have very limited knowledge of the nature and use of tools that accomplish these. Therefore, we proposed that board game design is a meaningful tool for engaging youth in understanding environmental issues. We reported…

Experimentation is a valuable way to build understanding in science. EcoXPT research looks at supporting authentic experiment-based inquiry within an immersive virtual ecosystem. EcoXPT includes a variety of investigative tools, including a Mesocosm tool that allows students to set up experimental pools to test interactions between variables. This…