Developing student capacity for the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) workforce requires not only better preparation in specific content and skills but also better preparation in understanding the goals that STEM fields can afford. In particular, stereotypic views that STEM fields lack communal opportunities to work with and help…

Teachers often struggle to implement inquiry-based science teaching. To support them, IndagApp--a 3D educational app that offers curriculum-aligned, inquiry-based lesson plans--was designed. The app is rooted in the inquiry phases recommended in best-practices literature, which arguably align with most international standards. This study describes…

Mathematics and science have similar learning processes (SLPs) and it has been proposed that courses focused on these and other similarities promote transfer across disciplines. However, it is not known how the use of these processes in lessons taught to children change throughout a preservice teacher education course or which are most likely to…

Afterschool programs have garnered much attention as promising environments for learning where children can engage in rich science activities. Yet, little is known about the kinds of instructional materials used in typical, large-scale afterschool programs that implement science with diverse populations of children. In this study, we investigated…

STEM education in elementary school is guided by the understanding that engineering represents the application of science and math concepts to make life better for people. The Engineering Design Process (EDP) guides the application of creative solutions to problems. Helping teachers understand how to apply the EDP to create lessons develops a…

Professional scientists who pursue a teaching credential bring a great deal of background to students in a classroom, but they may have barriers to the ways they portray the field of science. This study used a multiple-case replication design to determine the role of epistemology in lesson plans of seven scientists becoming teachers. Data sources…

This study represents a first iteration in the design process of the Growing Awareness Inventory (GAIn), a structured observation protocol for building the awareness of preservice teachers (PSTs) for resources in mathematics and science classrooms that can be used for culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP). The GAIn is designed to develop awareness…

Through the GK-12 program of the National Science Foundation, graduate student fellows in a coastal marine and wetland studies program were trained to present targeted science concepts to middle- and high-school classes through their own research-based lessons. Initially, they were taught to follow the 5-E learning cycle in lesson plan…

This study examines inservice elementary school teachers' beliefs, attitudes, and practical knowledge toward inquiry-based science instruction and the influence of an inquiry-based elementary science course on teachers' beliefs, attitudes, and practical knowledge regarding inquiry. Both surveys and a case study were administered to the 14…

An overview is provided of 50 years of research on naive theories in human biology. A set of recommendations aimed at confronting student misconceptions and facilitating conceptual change about the structure and function of the human body is presented, with five lessons described. (MNS)

Presents a lesson on the scale of the solar system that focuses on measurement, exponential notation, proportionality, and ratios. (Contains 17 references.) (Author/ASK)

This study examines the beliefs of K-8 preservice teachers during a content methods course. The goals of this course included exposing the preservice teachers to student-centered instructional methods for math and science and encouraging the development of lessons that would integrate mathematics and science. Prior research suggested that one must…

This study explored questions about the effect of lesson structure and cognitive development on science achievement of 42 students in grades four and five in British Columbia. Increased lesson structure did not significantly increase achievement, and interaction effects were generally nonsignificant. Conservation ability significantly affected…

Presents an integrated math/science activity in which families work together at an activity station and design and make a track for a marble to travel down using rules attached to a board. (MKR)

The overall aim of this article is to introduce case teaching to college professors who may wish to increase their students' level of engagement with science, mathematics, and engineering. Case teaching is an incredibly adaptable instructional method able to involve students in higher levels of cognitive processing. The explicit purposes of this…