Systemic oppression includes inequitable education that historically does not fully prepare students for comprehensive participation in society. The tools of science education, however, uniquely enable students to explore social inequities as well as the natural world. Thus, a role of education can be to embed social justice in science curricula.…

Students need to reflect on the practice of science to fully understand the nature of science (NOS), which is an important component of scientific literacy. In this paper, the authors describe how to implement an explicit and reflective pedagogy in college science laboratories and share examples from their implementation in a multiple-section…

There is an increase in school-community linked initiatives in school science. A substantial proportion of these involve rural schools. This article asks the question: In what ways do these initiatives offer possibilities for better engaging rural students with school science? The paper draws on information from a number of school-community linked…

Discusses the desirability of offering introductory college chemistry courses in lecture-laboratory sections and in audio-tutorial sections. (SL)

Describes a "guided design" instructional method utilized to introduce introductory physics students to decision-making processes and the role such processes play in physics. Guided design involves students in making decisions one step at a time in the solution of an open-ended problem, and is applicable to other disciplines. (SL)

Discussed is the need for examining the reasons for teaching optics to help to determine how optics should be taught. (SL)

Presented are justifications for including optics in the science curriculum, an outline of optics instruction as presently presented in English secondary schools, and a review of probable future trends in optics instruction. (SL)

Summaries of studies of the Project for an Energy-Enriched Curriculum (PEEC) materials are given, and information is presented about a pilot study in which students were asked to give their perceptions about the quality and usefulness of selected energy units. Some relationships between results of these studies are identified. (MP)

Presents some problems for quantum chemistry courses based upon model pseudopotentials. Also includes some useful formulas and tables of parameters associated with these problems. (HM)

Reviews chemistry taught at Westminster High School, Denver, Colorado, and theoretical aspects of hydrolysis. (SL)

Presented are the results of an approach to teaching physical chemistry designed to increase student motivation. Student achievement in a course utilizing motivation variables such as self-pacing, no dropping of grades, no pop-tests, and taped lectures, indicated significant gains over a course taught by a traditional approach. (SL)

Recommendations regarding literacy and the responsibilities of science educators are reviewed. The opportunity for pioneering, base-line research studies on the use of microcomputers in the classroom is viewed to exist. Significant contributions science education can make to computer literacy are noted. (MP)

The Learning Environmental Inventory is promoted as a tool that has been used extensively to ascertain differences in class environment and how student environment perceptions relate to achievement and attitude. It's felt that teachers can improve their classrooms through careful use of the instrument and application of knowledge gained. (MP)

Describes special factors and procedures which are utilized in an introductory physical science course for nonscience majors. It is designed to enable students who are at a concrete or transitional stage to attain the formal operational level of development. (Author/SL)

Reviewed are recent developments and projects concerned with the utilization of computer graphic terminals in computer assisted instruction of undergraduate level physics. Programs at the University of California, Irvine, University of Illinois, and Dartmouth are reviewed. (SL)