The authors examined college students' perceptions about their middle school and high school preparation for college science courses as well as what led them to study or not study science in college. Analysis of a survey using mixed methods revealed that the more laboratory techniques students felt proficient in conducting and the more science AP…

A medium-scale quantitative study (n = 90) found that 10-11-year-old pupils dealt with theory and evidence in notably different ways, depending on how the same science practical task was delivered. Under the auspices of a 2×2 part-randomised and part-quasi experimental design, pupils were asked to complete a brief, apparently simple task involving…

Science textbooks and classes mostly emphasize what are considered by today's standards the "right" or "correct" interpretations of particular phenomena or processes. When "incorrect" ideas of the past are mentioned at all, it is simply to point out their errors, with little attention as to why the ideas were put…

Wildfires lead to the loss of life and property in many parts of the world. Understanding their dangers and, more particularly, the underlying dynamics which lead to fires of catastrophic scale contributes to better awareness as well as prevention and firefighting capabilities within the affected areas. In order to enable a basic understanding of…

Elementary, middle-level, and high school science teachers commonly find their students have misconceptions about heat and temperature. Unfortunately, student misconceptions are difficult to modify or change and can prevent students from learning the accurate scientific explanation. In order to improve our students' understanding of heat and…

For most chemistry curricula, laboratory-based activities in quantitative and instrumental analysis continue to be an important aspect of student development/training, one that can be more effective if conceptual understanding is delivered through an inquiry-based process relating the material to relevant issues of public interest and student…

Current atom concept teachings haven't reached required levels from the points of both teaching methods and learning attainments. With this purpose in this research atom concept is conveyed to the classroom milieu through observations and experiments related to the atom concept during historical development process starting with the masterpiece…

We developed a simple, cost-effective, and eco-friendly method to synthesize gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) with red fluorescence. The experiment was performed using HAuCl[subscript 4], egg white, Na[subscript 2]CO[subscript 3] (known as soda ash or washing soda), and a microwave oven. In our experiment, fluorescent AuNCs were prepared within a…

Teaching children about circuits and the way electricity works is a "tricky business" because it is invisible. Just imagine all eyes are on the teacher as he or she produces for the class what looks like a ping-pong ball and then, with a wave of their hand, the incredible happens! This wonderful white sphere begins to glow red and a…

To help students make the connection between the concepts of heat conduction and convection to real-world phenomenon, we developed a combined experimental and computational module that can be incorporated into lecture or lab courses. The experimental system we present requires materials and apparatus that are readily accessible, and the procedure…

The earthworm is ideal for studying action potential conduction velocity in a classroom setting, as its simple linear anatomy allows easy axon length measurements and the worm's sparse coding allows single action potentials to be easily identified. The earthworm has two giant fiber systems (lateral and medial) with different conduction velocities…

Comparing two objects falling together is a small-scale version of Galileo's classical experiment, demonstrating the equivalence between gravitational and inertial mass. We present here investigations by a group of ten-year-olds, who used iPads to record the drops. The movie recordings were essential in the follow-up discussions, enabling the…

Helping students develop an understanding of how to interpret experimental data trends is an important part of the introductory physics laboratory. Unfortunately, many of my colleagues have lamented that too many of their students do this poorly. This is a common refrain, and past research has already revealed student difficulties with…

Doing science as explorers, students observe, wonder and question the unknown, stretching their experience. To engage students as explorers depends on their safety in expressing uncertainty and taking risks. I create these conditions in my university seminar by employing critical exploration in the classroom, a pedagogy developed by Eleanor…

The heterogeneous equilibrium of the solubility of calcium hydroxide in water is used to predict both its solubility product from solubility and solubility values from solubility product when inert salts, in any concentration, are present. Accepting the necessity of including activity coefficients to treat the saturated solution of calcium…