Purpose: This study draws on Bruno Latour's work, "Down to Earth: Politics in the New Climatic Regime," to re-imagine issues of climate change in K-12 science teaching and learning. "Re-turning" to a dwelling place can become an investigation, while issues of gender, race, education, food, technology, and religion can be…

In earlier studies, it has been argued that drama has the potential to stimulate learning in science. However, it is not widely used, one reason being that science teachers are not familiar with this instructional strategy. In this study, it was investigated how pre-service teachers in science developed dramas related to content in a biology…

Limited empirical research has investigated the impact of interdisciplinary STEM approaches on students' learning with a particular dearth in the area of assessment. A lack of alignment between interdisciplinary approaches in STEM teaching and its assessment strategies is notable. In this study, we adopt an inquiry approach to the ways in which…

Practical work may be assessed using many different forms of assessment, including coursework projects, practical exams and written questions in exams. In this article, the authors focus on the evaluation of one method for the assessment of practical science: written exam questions. Although individual syllabuses and curricula state the skills and…

There are many challenges associated with Inquiry-Based Practical Work (IBPW), scattered in the school and post-school natural sciences education research literature. The goal of the systematic review presented in this paper, was to gather the contextual teaching challenges in the said literature, and then to create a detailed multi-perspective…

In many science education practices, students are expected to develop an understanding of scientific knowledge without being allowed a view of the practices and cultures that have developed and use this knowledge. Therefore, students should be allowed to develop scientific concepts in relation to the contexts in which those concepts are used.…

An interesting problem in fluid mechanics, with significant educational importance, is the classic hydrostatic paradox. The hydrostatic paradox states the fact that in different shaped containers, with the same base area, which are filled with a liquid of the same height, the applied force by the liquid on the base of each container is exactly the…

To promote teaching science through inquiry, the author wanted to use his experience in the Galápagos to design a lesson that allows students to immerse themselves in the essential science and engineering practices identified in the "Next Generation Science Standards," as they ask questions; analyze and interpret data; engage in argument…

The place of fieldwork in both geography and science qualifications across the 14-19 age range remains contested, unclear and sometimes under threat. This article explores these issues for science education and was informed by a one-day, invitation-only workshop, which cut across geography and the sciences, that we ran at the behest of the Field…

A case study of secondary experimental science instruction in Belgium demonstrates the importance of cross-national communication in the study of science education. Belgian secondary science education in the years 1880-1914 had a clear internationalist dimension. French and German influences turn out to have been essential, stimulated by the fact…

The issue of limited engagement with science for young people from Indigenous, minority and lower socio-economic groups in Australia appears to have been sidelined from the mainstream debate around falling rates of engagement with science at the secondary schooling level. The "closing the gap" mantra of education policy in Australia has…

The purpose of this study was to detect the extent to which contextual material of a unit on "The origin and evolution of living organisms" included in the high-school biology curriculum in Jordan affected students' acceptance of the theory of evolution. The participants of this study consisted of 107 tenth-grade students randomly drawn…

It is often claimed, by science teachers at least, that whatever else science teaching in the future will consist of, it will certainly be representative of all science in mood and temper even if not in data presented. It will be taught to all students at the primary and secondary levels, be they girls or boys, be they intelligent or…

The present article analyses the changes in practices, ideas, and attitudes proposed by a group of novice science teachers during a further education teacher training program. The research on which it is based is focused on monitoring the training program and its impact on the participating teachers. The training program has as its starting point…

Although a large number of Spanish secondary schools have preserved an important scientific heritage, including large scientific instrument collections, this heritage has never been officially protected. Their current state is very diverse, and although several research projects have attempted to initiate their recovery and use, their lack of…