Hydrogen is a sustainable and climate-friendly storage for renewable energies and can directly be generated from sunlight, e.g., by photocatalytic water splitting. This article presents the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution using LED irradiation of an aqueous ZnS particle dispersion with Na[subscript 2]S and Na[subscript 2]SO[subscript 3] as…

One of the main courses that have been affected by instructional technology is science education since the nature of topics covered by the science curriculum may require the usage of technology to teach them better. The aim of the current study was to investigate the effects of virtual laboratories on the development of gifted children's…

In this action research study, it was aimed to develop proficiency in Science Laboratory Practices (SLP) for prospective classroom teachers (PCTs) with the online flipped learning model in the distance education process in the COVID-19 pandemic. A 14-week course was designed for the study. The results demonstrated that PCTs showed proficiency…

In this paper, the inclusion of history and philosophy of science in science teaching is proposed with the goal of depicting pre-service primary teachers' perception of the role of historical experiments in learning science and the nature of science. In order to achieve this, a teaching-learning sequence was designed and conducted in the context…

When the thermal expansion of water is discussed in school or university lessons, functional relationships are often inferred without considering measurement uncertainties. Moreover, in some learning materials, the goal of experimentation and the experimental setup do not match. This creates the wrong picture of scientific practice. In this…

Research exploring students' learning from physical and virtual labs has suggested that on the whole, students learn science content just as well, if not better from virtual labs as they do from physical labs. However, the affordances of physical labs might support the learning of specific skills and competencies that are just as crucial for…

In this work, the first experiment ever done to determine the age of the Earth is revisited. The benefits of its application at primary and secondary school levels are presented and discussed. In particular, emphasis is placed on the advantage of facing students with the challenges that scientists have had to overcome during the past three…

Inquiry-based learning can be an effective approach when students are provided with sufficient guidance. However, there is an ongoing debate among practitioners about the nature, type, and level of such guidance. This study investigated the effects on middle school students' (N = 116) conceptual knowledge and inquiry skills acquisition of…

The aim of this study is to reveal the effect of using virtual lab application in science teaching on students' academic achievement and students' views on virtual lab application. The study group of the research consists of 62 students studying in the 8th grade of a secondary school in Antalya in the 2019-2020 academic years. Mixed method design…

Open-ended and inquiry-based experiments will make students more active in the learning environment, and so they play an active role in solving the problem. So, it is expected that especially classroom teachers will be more active in the laboratory environment. In this context, opinions of the classroom teachers about the science laboratory…

The Next-Lab project provides free web-based resources supporting teachers in enhancing students' learning experiences. By including online laboratories, experiments otherwise difficult or impossible to perform are facilitated (e.g. crashing meteoroids into Earth). This article briefly presents the project and opportunities offered to teachers and…

In this study, the Science Laboratory Applications (SLA) course given in a department of Elementary School Teaching in Turkey was evaluated for effectiveness. A triangulation research design, with mixed methods, was employed based on research data collected via a semi-structured interview form, a Science Experiments Evaluation Rubric (SEER)…

We report a series of three experiments that introduce students at different stages of their academic preparation to the medical applications of hydrogels for controlled drug delivery and wound healing. The laboratory activity bridges the fundamental concepts of chemistry (acids and bases, equilibria, solvation, and reversible esterification) with…

Experimental work in the research of astronomical phenomena is often difficult or even impossible because of long-lasting processes or too distant objects and correspondingly too expensive equipment. In this paper, we present an example of observation of the Moon, which is our nearest astronomic object and therefore does not require professional…

The present study employed a quasi-experimental design to assess a computer-based tool, which was intended to scaffold the task of designing experiments when using a virtual lab for the process of experimentation. In particular, we assessed the impact of this tool on primary school students' cognitive processes and inquiry skills before and after…