Development of skills in bioscience undergraduates is seen as desirable by academic staff, students and employers, and this is reflected across most degree programmes. However, providing the opportunity for students to practise skills may alone be insufficient for their development. With an evident discrepancy between the skills expected of…

This article describes an after-school program at the Horace Mann School for the Deaf (HMS), the oldest public day school for deaf students in the United States, where almost half of the student body imagined and created bridge and robotic machines. The Deaf Robotics Engineering and Math Team, or the DREAM Team club, included HMS students in…

With 101 easy and inexpensive activities to do on school grounds, "Schoolyard Science" can help students develop their observation and inquiry skills as well as an appreciation of their outdoor environment. Covering topics such as lower plants, gardens, insects and other invertebrates, energy, and Earth science, Thomas Lord and Holly Travis…

This study focuses on student development with Calibrated Peer Review (CPR)[TM], a web-based tool created to promote writing and critical thinking skills. Research questions focus on whether or not students showed improvement in writing and reviewing competency with repeated use of CPR in a senior-level biology course and whether the difference…

"Real" science is about formulating and trying to solve practical and conceptual problems on the basis of shared beliefs about the world. Scientists build theories and test hypotheses by observation and experiment. They try their best to eliminate personal bias, and are "extremely canny in their acceptance of the claims of others" (Ziman, 2000).…

The outcomes of 1333 students enrolled in Chemical Educational Materials Study (CHEMS), Chemical Bond Approach (CBA), and a traditional chemistry course were compared on the basis of grade and ability level. For the total group, students taking CHEMS and CBA performed significantly better on the American Chemical Society Cooperative Examination in…

In the study, one of each of pairs of average and high ability eighth-grade classes was designated, by random means, as the experimental class. Students in the experimental classes viewed projected 2 x 2 colored slides which represented sequences of the same laboratory activities as those performed by the manipulative group. All other…

Utilizes a factorial design with the variables "use or non-use of Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS) inquiry slides" and "BSCS biology or non-BSCS biology." Eighteen classes of high school biology students were used in the study. Among other findings, groups using BSCS slides were found to be overall superior on…

Presents overviews of two programs developed in the spirit of the National Science Education Standards. BSCS Biology: A Human Approach is an inquiry-based, activity-driven biology program developed by the Biological Science Curriculum Study (BSCS). Insights in Biology, developed by the Education Development Center (EDC), is a modular program that…

This study investigated the teaching procedures of two groups of science teachers at the elementary school level. One group had received instruction in the Science Curriculum Improvement Study (SCIS) methods which included the inquiry-discovery approach. The second group had recieved no instruction in any "new" approach. SCIS-educated…

During 1974, materials developed by the Australian Science Education Projects (ASEP) became available in final published form. The publication of these materials was an especially important undertaking since ASEP was the first national curriculum project, in any subject area, to be developed in Australia. This report presents research into four…