To improve the teaching and learning materials for a curriculum it is important to incorporate the findings from educational research. In light of this, we present creative exercises and experiments to elicit, confront and resolve misconceptions in geometrical optics. Since ray diagrams can be both the cause and the solution for many…

Research globally has shown that many children lose interest in science towards the end of primary school and throughout the post-primary phase. This article explores children's experience and views in Irish schools that have adopted innovative practices that aim to empower, excite and inspire children in science. One of these focuses on explicit…

Hands-on, inquiry-based, and relevant to every student's life, "Gourmet Lab" serves up a full menu of activities for science teachers of grades 6-12. This collection of 15 hands-on experiments--each of which includes a full set of both student and teacher pages--challenges students to take on the role of scientist and chef, as they boil,…

Describes a science activity which allows secondary level students to discover the law of refraction. (SL)

Using examples this article tries to dispel a common misconception that theories "mature" into laws by constant testing and confirmation. (GA)

Answers the question about the crown effect of a liquid drop. Describes the concepts of surface tension, irregularities, and pinch effect. (YP)

Finds that interpretation of Galileo's only known experimental manuscript produces some interesting questions that offer pedagogical applications. Promotes classroom "research games" consisting of reconstructed experiments with Galileo's inclined plane and with other instruments to allow further speculation. (Author/WRM)

Describes a website designed to allow students to publish their own accounts of school science investigations they have carried out. Makes suggestions for initiating computer-mediated student discussions of the nature of science based on information contained in the website. (WRM)

The educational potential of agriculture stems from the diversity and tangibility of its components. As a science based human activity, it may provide the educator with a unique combination of educational opportunities in a context which is authentic and accessible to the pupil and to the teacher. (JHZ)