Integrating information from across multiple sources is an important science literacy skill that involves the following: identifying intra- and intertextual ties, modeling relationships between sources and claims and making an evaluation of the claims made. Tasks that involve reading, interpreting and synthesizing multiple sources have been well…

We have developed a curriculum for the organic chemistry laboratory in which students draw on authentic usage of spectroscopy, spectrometry, and computational chemistry to explain chemical phenomena. This curriculum, which has been continuously refined over a decade, has been explored by many thousands of students and is scalable to small and…

Last five decades have witnessed the comprehensive growth of science education around the world as the science is regarded as the major tenets of innovation and economic growth. Various extant studies on science education have concentrate on how to deliver and put the science in both curriculum and classrooms. However, there are rarely researches…

Recent science reform advocates for the inclusion of engineering design to teach science and represents a shift to so-called three-dimensional (3D) learning. This shift often requires science instructors to adapt their current curriculum to integrate 3D learning. To support this shift, the current study illustrates the collaborative development…

The main purpose of this research was to develop a guide material in line with learning outcomes of the unit for the 5th Graders titled Solving the Puzzle: Our Body in order to be utilized during out-of-school learning activities by science teachers. There is no guide material developed in our country for science teachers to be used in out-of…

The purpose of this study was to develop e-learning activities that could facilitate the integration of sustainability concepts and practices in engineering and chemical education. Using an online learning management system (LMS), undergraduate students in an applied chemistry program at a public university in Zimbabwe participated in an online…

Instructional materials are a key means to achieving the goals of science education--an enterprise that yields unique and worthwhile benefits to individuals and society. As states and districts move forward with adoption and implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) or work on improving their instruction to align with "A…

This study looked at a life science course that was offered at and taught by education staff of a large informal science institution (ISI) located in the Midwest. The curriculum, materials, and agendas for the course were developed by education staff and complemented a permanent life science exhibition. The researcher developed a content test…

The present is a commentary on the article authored by Oliveira, Colak, and Akerson; and as such, it should provoke readers to re-consider the study from a different perspective, one that does not prescribe any intentionality to participants' discourse. It is also my contention that students and teachers should be treated as co-constitutives of…

It is argued that the lack of consensus on what constitutes an inquiry-based approach makes the generalization about it difficult, because the concept is relatively unspecific and vague. This problem can partially be solved by constructing a set of activities promoted by inquiry, thus defining the inquiry objectives for classroom and laboratory…

Science teachers and graduate students have developed activities and assessment tools that begin to help students make the distinction between data and evidence. Two activities are covered in this article. (Contains 1 resource and 2 figures.)

Over the past three decades, environmental issues have been on the global forefront and continue to affect people's daily lives. Although the need for environmental attention is at an all-time high, outdoor and environmental education (OEE) plays an insufficient role in school systems. As technology continues to contribute to advancements in every…

The author discusses complexity, environmental education, and learning strategies. Using the concept of time, complexity is divided into two main types: (1) substantive and (2) structural. The author asserts that there exists a principle of tradeoff between these two types where one of the types can be increased while the other is decreased until…

This document is a guide for teachers and community resource personnel interested in developing an environmental education program. The book is divided into seven parts: (1) Process and Problem Solving Approach to Learning; (2) Lesson Plans for Environmental Investigations; (3) Simulations; (4) Developing Environmental Investigations; (5) Group…

Presents the view that laboratory work has been overemphasized. Need to critically examine effects on students of this practice. Some objections to current laboratory hours include irrelevance to student's future careers, recipe-type experiments, and conflicts with main academic objectives. (PS)