As science teachers, we often show animations and videos in class but there is the potential for students to create their own animations to represent science concepts and thus make their conceptions visible for critique and refinement. This encourages students to be active in their own learning, creating animations rather than just viewing them.…

Organic chemistry education is one of the youngest research areas among all chemistry related research efforts, and its published scholarly work has become vibrant and diverse over the last 15 years. Research on problem-solving behavior, students' use of the arrow-pushing formalism, the investigation of students' conceptual knowledge and…

Physics is the study of forces and motion--the science of matter and energy and the interaction between the two. The big idea the children explore, as well as the question they ask as they engage in physical knowledge activities related to physics, is "How does it move?" Many teachers translate naturally as they come to know the children they…

The relationship of cognitive development to learning science is considered. Views of thinking from both a psychological and a scientific standpoint are compared in order to shed light on current science teaching practice. Metacognition and problem solving are discussed. (Author/MT)

Analyzes students' attempts to answer examination questions involving stoichiometry and chemical equilibrium and reports that the majority of the students do not fully understand either concept. Concludes that the main difficulty with these topics is that they are highly abstract and first taught to students before they have reached the stage of…

Investigates the influence of five cognitive variables on high school students' performance on balancing chemical equations by inspection. Reports that reasoning, restructuring, and disembedding variables could be a single variable, and that working memory capacity does not influence overall performance. Results of hierarchical regression analysis…

Many chemists want to be effective teachers but have little background in psychology or education on which to build successful practices. The primary audience for this book is chemistry teachers at the secondary and tertiary levels, and its purpose is to encourage readers to construct a new understanding of how their students learn. This book is…

This study is concerned with determining the relative effectiveness of a static and dynamic theoretical model in teaching elementary school students to use the particle idea of matter when explaining certain physical phenomena. A clinical method of personal individual interview-testing, teaching, and retesting of a random sample population from…

How students restructured their scientific ideas in response to contradictions was studied with 166 male and female students (aged 12 to 14 years) who tested their predictions about water displacement by experiment. Conceptual change varied; all subjects tended to hold onto old ideas, even when presented with conflicting information. (SLD)

Describes the development and use of two computer simulations for investigating systems thinking and environmental problem-solving in children (n=92). Finds that older children outperformed younger children, who tended to exhibit magical thinking. Suggests that seemingly isomorphic environmental problems may not be interpreted as such by children.…

The reasoning ability of 20 ninth grade, 20 eleventh grade, and 15 college freshman boys was explored. Three tasks in reasoning were given each student. In the "turtles task" the student was asked to test a hypothesis; from his responses the investigator determined whether the student tested the hypothesis by trying to find confirming instance or,…

Science and social studies have much to offer to all learners--including those with disabilities. However, instruction in these subjects has often been overlooked in the quest to better understand and improve leaning in English/language arts and mathematics. As we demonstrate in this paper, science and social studies help students attain skills,…

Students' conceptions of the concept of force are discussed. Possible problem formats and exercises are presented. The need for many formats and variations to help students' resolve their conflicting ideas about physics concepts is stressed. (CW)

Discusses the advantages of using discrepant events in elementary school science classrooms in terms of motivation and problem solving skills. Describes the materials, procedures, and reasons behind five discrepant activities. (YP)

Presents a conceptual framework for teaching science to students with disabilities. The framework suggests integration of explicit instruction in critical concepts, with cognitively-based approaches that emphasize problem-solving skills on real-world tasks. Implications for policy, professional development, and creation of learning environments…