E-Science has the potential to transform school science by enabling learners, teachers and research scientists to engage together in authentic scientific enquiry, collaboration and learning. However, if we are to reap the benefits of this potential as part of everyday teaching and learning, we need to explicitly think about and support the work…

Reports that teachers in preservice education programs still view the teaching of science much in the same traditional ways as our predecessors. "The Oklahoma Science Project (OSP) Model for Professional Development: Practicing Science Across Contexts" will build discourses and relationships that can be extended across contexts to establish…

The purpose of this study was to document the iterative development of a design-based science curriculum called Learning Science by Designing Artifacts (LSDA). The study refers to the enactment of the Safer Cell Phones curriculum in a high school located in the Midwest. The curriculum was a 5- or 9-week unit in an 18-week science elective course.…

Engaging students in both hands-on and minds-on experiences is needed for education that is relevant and complete. Many middle school students enter science classrooms with pre-conceived ideas about their world. Some of these ideas are misconceptions that hinder students from developing accepted concepts in science, such as those related to…

We redesigned the undergraduate introductory biology course by writing a new textbook ("Integrating Concepts in Biology" ["ICB"]) that follows first principles of learning. Our approach emphasizes primary data interpretation and the utility of mathematics in biology, while de-emphasizing memorization. This redesign divides biology into five big…

"Potemkin schools" is used as the phrase to capture what a US science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) public speciality high school becomes as a result of its institutional branding. By way of an examination of the efforts of one teacher drawn into school branding through his "inquiry-based reform" of an Advanced Chemistry course,…

This document is written to encourage college faculty to use a student-centered, activity-related, approach to science instruction. Suggestions are provided for methods that can be used by faculty and administrators to develop alternatives to lecturing. The major sections of this document include the following: (1) Is There an Alternative to…

What teaching practices foster inquiry and promote students to learn challenging subject matter in urban schools? Inquiry-based instruction and successful inquiry learning and teaching in project-based science (PBS) were described in previous studies (Brown & Campione, [1990]; Crawford, [1999]; Krajcik, Blumenfeld, Marx, Bass, & Fredricks,…

Discusses how to reform science education in light of individual and societal needs for science literacy. Science education standards, curriculum changes, hands-on and computer-based projects, telecommunications for teacher training, and technology for student assessment are described. A sidebar article presents a model science teacher development…

The purpose of this article is to focus on the development and refinement of a science instructional design program arguing for the feasibility and usability of integrated reading and science instruction as implemented in third- and fourth-grade science classrooms to meet the learning needs of diverse learners. These instructional components are…

This publication is third in a series prepared in cooperation with the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), by the Eisenhower National Clearinghouse for Mathematics and Science Education. This document focuses on the…

This publication is part of a series prepared in cooperation with the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), by the Eisenhower National Clearinghouse for Mathematics and Science Education. This document focuses on the…

Studies on science course improvement projects are synthesized, with reactions from several professional organizations. Other reports from the mid-1980s are noted. A brief summary of research findings is provided, with a longer discussion on the impetus for change, the conditions needed for change, and who decides. (MNS)

Discusses important tenets of the Scope Sequence and Coordination (SS&C) project and presents the SS&C high school project designed specifically to achieve the National Science Education Standards. Specifies the scope, sequence, and coordination of the natural sciences in grades 9 through 12 in support of general goals taken from the…

Describes efforts aimed at reforming physics courses for first-year engineering and science students at Rutgers-The State University of New Jersey. Discusses the establishment and working of the Physics Learning Center (PLC) and its impact on the retention and performance of students. (JRH)