Background and Context: Peer code review activities provide well-documented benefits to students in programming courses. Students develop relevant skills through exposure to alternative coding solutions, producing and receiving feedback, and collaboration with peers. Despite these benefits, low student motivation has been identified as one of the…

Many introductory astronomy courses include concepts related to basic stellar properties. In general, these are concepts that originate from the human perception of starlight. This observational aspect is not easy to incorporate in the classroom. We explore if these concepts could be developed using the built-in data in a planetarium software.…

Although several investigations have been carried out in recent years on written corrective feedback (WCF), there is a lack of agreement about its definition and the effect on students' writings of different types of feedback. This may be due to the lack of systematicity regarding the characterization of WCF used in those studies. This article…

Principal component analysis (PCA) is one of the most important and powerful methods in chemometrics as well as in a wealth of other areas. Running a PCA results in two main elements, the score plot and the loading plot; the score plot provides the location of the samples, and the loading plot indicates correlations among variables, the trends in…

Classroom implementation of the "Next Generation Science Standards" (NGSS Lead States 2013) does not necessarily require complete curricular overhaul. In many cases, teachers can review previously used lessons with respect to the "NGSS," evaluate alignment, and make subsequent modifications. One science activity the author has…

When seeking a more nuanced understanding of sexuality, participants can benefit from hands-on activities that provide experience with the limitation of descriptors and social shaping of definitions. In many sexuality education contexts, participants enter the learning environment with a narrow definition of sexuality. The following game provides…

This article describes activities in which students sample, investigate, classify, and compare characteristics (i.e., texture, color, density, porosity) of local soils, evaluating whether the soils are healthy or at risk. Students investigate correlations between geology and geography, predict which soil types may go extinct in their state, and…

There are five words that are critical to an appreciation of what is "typical" in data sets that students encounter across the middle school years. The first three words--mean, median and mode--are nouns that define measures of typicality in data sets. The next two words--categorical and numerical--are adjectives that describe the types…

Learning affordances of video and print are examined in order to assess the learning outcomes afforded by hybrid video-print learning packages. The affordances discussed for print are: navigability, surveyability and legibility. Those discussed for video are: design for constructive reflection, provision of realistic experiences, presentational…

Learning about intellectual property can help students understand the process it takes to bring ideas to fruition. It is very important for technology and engineering students to learn early that technology is not just concrete processes and physical artifacts. Creativity is closely linked to technology and is vital in helping us address perceived…

Why might intelligent, assertive females overlook sweet, caring guys, choosing instead to date males whose traditional masculinity makes them popular with other powerful males but who treat females and "weaker" males poorly? This lesson provides a structure for, reflection on, and critique of contemporary gender stereotypes. Students…

It is a fact that each individual is unique. This uniqueness can be physical, emotional, intellectual and/or spiritual. It follows then that in any given learning environment each learner has unique abilities and needs. Consequently, classrooms everywhere, even if they are streamed, are of a mixed-ability nature. Having recognised this factor in…

Social studies teachers are charged with the task of developing students' understandings as students engage in critical examination of social studies issues and topics. Teachers often use test items from textbooks or instructional resources, or create their own classroom assessments with no specific pedagogical foundation. All too often, these…

Higher-order thinking is an instructional strategy supported by research. Often referred to as critical thinking skills, it is more than simple recall of facts or information. It is a function of the interaction between cognitive strategies, meta-cognition, and nonstrategic knowledge when solving problems. Higher-order thinking is based on the…

Teaching by inquiry is touted for its potential to encourage students to reason scientifically. Yet, even when inquiry teaching is practiced, complexity of students' reasoning may be limited or unbalanced. We describe an analytic tool for recognizing when students are engaged in complex reasoning during inquiry teaching. Using classrooms that…