This mixed methods research explored the autonomous experiences of South African school students when participating in a science fair. A prominent global goal for school science education is for students to partake in scientific inquiry in order to acquire understanding of science concepts, the processes and skills of science, and the nature of…

Experiments are essential for both doing science and learning science. The aim of the German youth science fair, "Jugend forscht," is to encourage scientific thinking and inquiry methods such as experimentation. Based on 57 interviews with participants of the competition, this study summarises students' conceptions and steps of learning…

Problem Statement: Research studies indicate that teachers with negative attitudes toward science tend to use didactic approaches rather than approaches based on students' active participation. However, the reviews of the national academic literature in Turkey located a few research studies on the relationship between playful science experiences…

As a science teacher educator and former science teacher, the author has long known that the science fair should be part of his professional experience, but he had not given it much thought until recently. As he worked with his daughter's project, he became convinced that it is time to reconsider the range of activities one calls "science fairs."…

Animals Alive! is designed to help teachers develop an inquiry-oriented program for studying the animal kingdom in which, whenever possible, live animals are collected locally, studied, observed, and then released completely unharmed back into their natural habitats. By careful selection and modification of the chapter questions, activities, and…

This book was written to make it easier for classroom teachers to teach students the skills they need to successfully conduct, analyze, and report an experiment and to carry out independent research; it also presents strategies for holding successful science competitions. Part 1 contains field-tested teaching strategies for developing student…

Building on the scientific and investigative knowledge that students acquire over the years, this program delves deeper into the theory of "science as inquiry". This program helps students recognize the intricate relationship between explanation and evidence through engaging examples. Students trace the path of scientific inquiry--guided by…