Science education policies and standards have called for educators to teach students about the Nature of Science (NOS) and engage them in Culturally Relevant Science Teaching (CRST), which requires critical shifts away from traditional science teaching. As such, teachers are being asked to possess or take up conceptions of science that challenge…

Scientific media education is the ability to draw on a knowledge of the media and science, in order to choose, understand, evaluate, and respond to representations of science across diverse media genres. We begin this manuscript by reviewing research that shows scientific media education is one of the most important content areas that could be…

Models and modeling are core elements of scientific methods and consequently also are of key importance for the conception and teaching of scientific methodology. The epistemology of models and its transfer and adaption to nature of science education are not, however, simple themes. We present some conceptual units in which school science models…

For a first-year seminar, Windows on Science, the authors developed a cooperative learning activity around film designed to meet two of the campus-wide Principles of Undergraduate Learning. The teaching method utilizes the power of storytelling by screening narrative and documentary films. In the process, the methodology helps students to realize…

Offering expertise in the teaching of writing (Kim Jaxon) and the teaching of science (Leslie Atkins Elliott and Irene Salter), this book will help instructors create classrooms in which students use writing to learn and think scientifically. The authors provide concrete approaches for engaging students in practices that mirror the work that…

Two groups of year 6 pupils (age 10-11 years) each experienced science practical lessons that were essentially identical but for one difference: one group (theory-led) were told by the teacher what result they should expect, and the other group (hypothetico-deductive) were not. The theory-led group demonstrated experimental bias, recording results…

During the past few decades, a wide consensus has been reached in the community of science educators that it is almost unimaginable to conduct a quality science education without including the history and philosophy of science in some form in the science curriculum, and this is especially the case for physics education (Matthews 1994). However, in…

We present an innovative course-based undergraduate research experience curriculum focused on the characterization of single point mutations in p53, a tumor suppressor gene that is mutated in more than 50% of human cancers. This course is required of all introductory biology students, so all biology majors engage in a research project as part of…

Teachers' feelings of uncertainty are an overlooked, though crucial, condition necessary for the promotion of educational change. This article investigates the feelings of uncertainty that preservice teachers have toward the conduct of science as inquiry and the extent to which methods courses can confront and embrace those uncertainties. Our work…

Having students design their own methods regarding data collection during a lab may help them formulate appropriate investigative procedures. The authors use a modified gallery walk to develop science skills. (Contains 3 figures.)

Graduate students entered our online classrooms with robust, but nonscientific, opinions on climate change. To expose students to critical analysis of media and emphasize the nature of science, we required them to access scientific reports and participate in mandatory peer discussions. An introductory survey probed incoming knowledge and opinions,…

The first thing that comes to mind for many teachers when they think of assessment is testing, quizzes, performance tasks, and other summative forms used for grading purposes. Such assessment practices represent only a fraction of the kinds of assessment that occur on an ongoing basis in an effective science classroom. Formative assessment is a…

This study is part of ongoing research investigating the experiences of undergraduate students who enroll in an integrated inquiry-based biology program during their freshman year. The purpose of this study was to explore students' perspectives on the program and their perceptions of science and scientific inquiry after completing the program.…

A challenging aspect of educating secondary students is integrating complex scientific concepts related to modern research topics into lesson plans that students can relate to and understand at a basic level. One method of encouraging the achievement of learning outcomes is to use real-world applications and current research to fuel student…

Although the use of portfolios to assess student performance in K-12 science classrooms and to monitor the training of preservice science teachers is increasingly common, their implementation in undergraduate science courses is still limited. The work presented here represents one in-depth example of the integration of portfolio assessment into…