There remains a clear deficiency in recruiting middle school students in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine fields, especially for those students entering physiology from underrepresented backgrounds. A large part of this may be arising from a disconnect between how science is typically practiced at a collegiate and K-12…

Gender stereotypes about science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) are salient for children and adolescents and contribute to achievement-related disparities and inequalities in STEM participation. However, few studies have used a longitudinal design to examine changes in gender stereotypes across a range of STEM fields. In a large,…

Science-related competencies are demanded in many fields, but attracting more students to scientific educations remains a challenge. This paper uses two studies to investigate the value of using Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) laboratory simulations in science education. In Study 1, 99 (52 male, 47 female) seventh (49) and eighth (50) grade…

The purpose of the current study was to determine the effect of teaching astronomy through augmented reality (AR) on the achievement and interest level of gifted students and their opinions about AR applications. The current study was conducted in line with the explanatory sequential mixed-methods design. The study group of the current research…

In the present study, the effects of STEM-based robotics applications on students' creativity and scientific attitudes in the Electricity Unit of 7th grade have been investigated using the mixed method's nested pattern. Sixty students, 30 of whom are the experimental group and the other 30 constitute the control group, attending a post-school…

Building on previous research that has described the underrepresentation of women of color in science fields, this paper presents case studies of Black middle school girls to examine how their science identities developed over space and time. Data were collected over the course of their seventh-grade year in both in school (science classroom) and…

There is growing evidence that science capital (science-related forms of social and cultural capital) and family habitus (dispositions for science) influence STEM career decisions by youth. This study presents reliability and validity evidence for a survey of factors that influence career aspirations in science. Psychometric properties of the…

To better understand STEM interest development during adolescence in an urban community, we examined how "STEM Interested" youth differed from disinterested youth and how interest changed over time from age 11/12 to 12/13. We surveyed youth to measure interest in four components of STEM, used cluster analysis to categorize youth based on…

Gender disparities in STEM fields have been under extensive study, the focus of which has been on future career aspirations. However, the primary phases in gender differences are still ambiguous when examined from this perspective, possibly due to the fact that most of the studies have targeted samples of upper secondary school or college…

My dissertation is a pre-mid-post-test, quantitative research design, including surveys and written assessments, to answer these research questions: 1. How do students' science mindset vary over time when engaged in science inquiry activities? Is there a difference between male and female students? 2. Is there a relationship between 7th grade…

This longitudinal study focuses on evaluating grade 7-9 school students' perceptions of intervention modules intended to be relevant, as well as promoting learning attributes to raise awareness of science-related careers. Students are taught through six purposely developed and designed career-related teaching-learning modules (C-TLMs). Each module…

Newtonian mechanics is still among the most difficult topics in the physics' syllabus taught at school. For example, even after completing traditional instruction, students still think that a force is necessary to maintain motion. Therefore, a revised method of instruction is needed that meets students' learning needs. The aim of the project…

Many studies have shown a decrease in scientific interest with an increase in age. Since interest is linked to a high degree of deep-level learning, it is of great relevance to foster interest in science. This study investigates interest in biology from 7th, 9th, and 12th grade students in Germany (N=257). Results show a significantly lower…

Purpose: Attitude is expression or response of students regarding learning. Attitudes in the form of expressions of like, dislike or rejecting an object. The purpose of this research is to describe the attitudes of students towards the three attitude indicators at middle school in Jambi Province Indonesia. Research Methods: Type of research is…

The present study was conducted to explore the effect of the use of computer-aided and inquiry-based teaching approaches on 7th grade students' anxiety towards science. The research was carried out in the spring semester of 2016-2017 academic year with the participation of 69 students from two classes of a middle school in Kayseri, Turkey. The…