This paper is an examination of a teacher professional development program in northeast Louisiana, that provided 30 teachers and their students with the technology, skills, and content knowledge to collect data and explore weather trends. Data were collected from both continuous monitoring weather stations and simple school-based weather stations…

We present a mixed-methods approach to community-based assessment design that engages tribal college and university faculty, students, and science educators, as well as experts in cultural knowledge from the Blackfeet and Diné (Navajo) nations. Information from cultural experts, gathered through a combination of sequential surveys and focus group…

Children have formal science instruction from kindergarten in Australia and from Year 3 in China. The purpose of this research was to explore the impact that different approaches to primary science curricula in China and Australia have on children's conceptual understanding of science. Participants were Year 3 children from three schools of high,…

In 2007, a new upper secondary course, Earth and Environmental Science (EES) was introduced in Western Australia. The development and implementation of the course was supported by Earth Science Western Australia (ESWA), a consortium of universities, the CSIRO and other organisations. The role of ESWA is to support the teaching of earth science in…

This research used a survey and interviews to find out which science subjects 174 Year 10 students wanted to study in Year 11 and why. The results showed that the major reasons students wanted to study a particular science subject were because they were interested in the subject matter and because they felt they would achieve well in that subject.…

The Earth sciences are newly marginalized in K-12 classrooms. With few high schools offering Earth science courses, students' exposure to the Earth sciences relies on the teacher's ability to incorporate Earth science material into a biology, chemistry, or physics course. ''G.E.T. (Geoscience Experiences for Teachers) in the Field'' is an…

Reform of undergraduate science education will need to be supported with effective professional development for current and future faculty. The professional development programs will need to address the knowledge, skills and beliefs of higher education faculty so that they can implement the kind of effective practices that results in the intended…

Trying to implement interdisciplinary geoscience curriculum materials in geography and science education we asked how they fit into teachers' existing practices, their needs for support and strategies to plan instruction. The focus of our case study has been the identification of the goals teachers pursue with the materials, of strategies for…

Uses interviews and a written questionnaire to probe students' ideas on the origin of earth and life on earth. A significant number of commonly held misconceptions were prevalent in the sample (N=493). Provides guidelines to assist learners in challenging existing views. Contains 64 references. (DDR)