Launched in June 2016, the Smithsonian Learning Lab (SLL) provides access to the digital resources from across the Smithsonian's 19 museums, 9 major research centers, and the National Zoo, to be used as real-world learning experiences. It is designed to aid students in building lasting knowledge and critical skills that take learners from simply…

"Sickle cell anemia: tracking down a mutation" is a full-day, inquiry-based, biology experience for high school students enrolled in genetics or advanced biology courses. In the experience, students use restriction endonuclease digestion, cellulose acetate gel electrophoresis, and microscopy to discover which of three putative patients…

We explore the power of allowing students to construct their own conceptual understanding as they "read an object" in a series of guided inquiry steps, developing their own questions about the object. Their ownership of questions increases the learner's engagement and results in more efficacious learning and meets the standards of…

Background: In this paper, I share a case study of a teacher's work on mathematics tasks in the context of a 'mathematics for teaching' course aiming to develop mathematical content understandings and mathematical practices among primary teachers in one South African province. The course was developed in a national context of concerns about the…

The Maker Movement has taken the educational field by storm due to its perceived potential as a driver of creativity, excitement, and innovation (Honey & Kanter, [Honey, M., 2013]; Martinez & Stager, [Martin, L., 2013]). Making is promoted as advancing entrepreneurship, developing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)…

This is the fourth paper in our Light-Emitting Diodes series. The series aims to create a systematic library of LED-based materials and to provide readers with the description of experiments and the pedagogical treatment that would help their students construct, test, and apply physics concepts and mathematical relations. The first paper provided…

Inquiry-based learning (IBL) activities are complementary to the processes of laboratory discovery, as both are focused on producing new findings through research and inquiry. Here, we describe the results of student surveys taken pre- and postpractical to an IBL undergraduate practical on PCR. Our analysis focuses primarily student perceptions of…

In this paper, we identify "Learning to Learn Together" (L2L2) as a new and important educational goal. Our view of L2L2 is a substantial extension of "Learning to Learn" (L2L): L2L2 consists of learning to collaborate to successfully face L2L challenges. It is inseparable from L2L, as it emerges when individuals face problems…

The Department of Chemistry at American University has replaced its junior- and senior-level laboratory curriculum with two, two-semester long, student-led research projects as part of the department's American Chemical Society-accredited program. In the first semester of each sequence, a faculty instructor leads the students through a set of…

Inquiry-based learning (IBL) is a more student-centered approach to mathematics teaching that is recommended by many policy and curriculum documents across Europe. However, it is not easy for teachers to change from a more teacher-centered way of teaching to inquiry-based teaching as this involves a change of their role in class. Professional…

In this experiment, students build a spectrometer to explore infrared radiation and greenhouse gases in an inquiry-based investigation to introduce climate science in a general chemistry lab course. The lab is based on the exploration of the thermal effects of molecular absorption of infrared radiation by greenhouse and non-greenhouse gases. A…

What kinds of teachers are needed for 21st century learners? While there is recognition that curriculum content, classroom practices and learning environments must alter, there is less attention focussed on the teachers' dispositions for negotiating uncertainty. In this paper, the authors turn their attention to the importance of teachers' lives…

The recent growth in collaborative and interactive virtual learning communities integrating innovative digital technologies and contemporary learning frameworks is contributing enormously to the use of e-learning in higher education in the twenty-first century. The purpose of this study was to describe the development of a virtual learning…

Research experience is increasingly considered an important component of science education at the secondary school and undergraduate levels. This paper presents a case study of students learning in a unique apprenticeship model in which students are engaged in long-term (18 month) open-ended research projects in physics that are done at the…

In this article, Clay and Rhee use the mathematics topic of circles and the lines that intersect them to introduce the idea of looking at the single mathematical idea of relationships--in this case, between angles and arcs--across a group of problems. They introduce the mathematics that underlies these relationships, beginning with the questions…