Sequence stratigraphic and Wheeler diagram interpretations require a strong combination of conceptual understanding and diagram reasoning skills. Students are generally exposed to the foundational concepts within sequence stratigraphy (relative sea level, eustasy, base level, and accommodation) in a variety of courses along their degree path,…

Earth science concepts can be challenging for children to grasp due to their abstract nature. This study explores the potential of 3D computer animation as an engaging and effective medium to communicate various earth science processes to young learners. By creating age-appropriate, scientifically accurate visualizations of geological features and…

In the Australian state of Victoria, the city of Melbourne endured the world's longest number of lockdown days, with severe government health orders and travel restrictions in place for extended periods of 2020 and 2021. In common with others, we found the provision of field teaching in introductory geology, structural geology, and volcanology,…

Current science education efforts emphasise the need to train students to understand the nature of scientific work. In geosciences, training students to understand how science works does not only promote their interest and community engagement in the field, but also has the potential to promote awareness and ethics. However, instructional…

Because challenges to sustainability arise at the intersection of human and biophysical systems they are inescapably embedded in social contexts and involve multiple stakeholders with diverse and often conflicting needs and value systems. Addressing complex and solution-resistant problems such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and…

Helping students understand that the scientific community's claims change through time, sometimes radically, allows them to develop a well-grounded sense of the "nature of science." Learning to reason about how scientific claims come to be accepted, and later refuted, is important for understanding the tentative nature of scientific…

Understanding and reasoning about phenomena at scales outside human perception (for example, geologic time) is critical across science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Thus, devising strong methods to support acquisition of reasoning at such scales is an important goal in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education. In…

Interdisciplinary studies foster integration of ideas across disciplines. The knowledge building pedagogy, with its 12 principles and associated technology, Knowledge Forum®, provides multifaceted support for linking ideas across disciplines and communities. This exploratory study aims to assess the extent to which elementary-school students…

There is a need for research-informed instructional approaches that promote school students' deep conceptual understanding of abstract geological concepts. Given that a type of learner-constructed stop-motion animation, 'slowmation', has been shown to offer affordances for learning in science preservice teacher education, we extended its…

Internationally much attention is being paid to which of a seemingly endless list of scientific concepts should be taught to schoolchildren to enable them to best participate in the global economy of the 21st Century. In regards to science education, the concepts framing the subject of geology holds exalted status as core scientific principles in…

In this study we introduce an infusion model to "inject" ammonites and ammonite fossils in current subjects of Greek primary curriculum. Paleontology and mainly fossils attract more and more elementary students and teachers, yet in Greece this trend is solely about dinosaurs, despite the fact that the most common Greek fossils are not…

Spatial visualization is an essential prerequisite for understanding geological features at all scales, such as the atomic structures of minerals, the geometry of a complex fault system, or the architecture of sedimentary deposits. Undergraduate geoscience majors bring a range of spatial skill levels to upper-level courses. Fortunately, spatial…

As our closest celestial neighbor, the Moon is a familiar and inspiring object to investigate using a small telescope, binoculars, or even photographs or one of the many high quality maps available online. The wondrously varied surface of the Moon--filled with craters, mountains, volcanic flows, scarps, and rilles--makes the Moon an excellent…

In response to calls for research into effective instruction in the Earth and space sciences, and to identify directions for future research, this systematic review of the literature explores research into instructional approaches designed to facilitate conceptual change. In total, 52 studies were identified and analyzed. Analysis focused on the…

This article addresses the issue of the level of complexity of practical work in science curricula and is focused on the discipline of Biology and Geology at high school. The level of complexity is seen in terms of the emphasis on and types of practical work and, most importantly, in terms of its level of conceptual demand as given by the…