Argument skills play a crucial role in fostering students' scientific literacy. Students who possess such skills can employ reason and evidence to make decisions. This classroom action research was aimed at investigating the best practices for teaching chemistry to promote argument skills through socioscientific issues (SSI). The participants were…

A life-cycle assessment (LCA) is a tool used by engineers to make measurements of net energy, greenhouse gas production, water consumption, and other items of concern. This article describes an activity designed to walk students through the qualitative part of an LCA. It asks them to consider the life-cycle costs of ethanol production, in terms of…

Four energy conservation concept areas are developed in this unit: (1) energy resources are many and varied and have evolved over a long period of history; (2) as much as 30 to 50 percent of the energy in the United States is wasted; (3) homes, offices, and schools account for 24 percent of total energy consumption and savings can be made through…

This study explored 30 Grade 1 to 6 (6-12 years old) Thai students' existing ideas about energy. The study employed the Interview about Event (IAE) approach. During IAE, the cards of an event or things were showed to students in order to probe their views of energy concepts. Findings indicated that young students held various alternative…

Designed for science students in fourth, fifth, and sixth grades, the activities in this unit illustrate principles and problems related to the conservation of energy. Eleven student activities using art, economics, arithmetic, and other skills and disciplines help teachers directly involve students in exploring scientific questions and making…

This teaching unit explores coal as an energy resource. Goals, student objectives, background information, and activity options are presented for each major section. The sections are: (1) an introduction to coal (which describes how and where coal was formed and explains the types of coal); (2) the mining of coal (including the methods and ways of…

This study unit advocates the use of biomass conversion techniques with municipal solid wastes as a viable action for energy development. The unit includes: (1) an introductory section (providing a unit overview and supportive statements for biomass conversion; (2) a historical review of energy use from wastes; (3) a section on design and…