Acceptance of human evolution seems to be the majority position for the U.S. population; however, acceptance of evolution among conservative Christian groups is low, sometimes below 50%. There are many different reasons for this low acceptance, leading to a significant disconnect between scientific specialists and the general population. This…

In response to STEM education reform efforts, many instructors have incorporated active learning into their courses. However, the relationship between instructor justification to students about the use of active learning and student perception of why instructors use active learning is largely unknown. To investigate instructor active learning…

Web-based collaborative annotation tools can facilitate communication among students and their instructors through online reading and communication. Collaborative reading fosters peer interaction and is an innovative way to facilitate discussion and participation in larger enrollment courses. It can be especially powerful as it creates an…

Misconceptions that students bring with them to the introductory science classroom plague every area of science and are especially prevalent in astronomy. One way to identify and possibly dispel some of these misconceptions is through the use of a misconceptions survey. The following is a report on the development, implementation, and some early…

Funding agencies and the science education community at large have pursued strategies for increasing K-12 outreach by scientists and for improving instructional practices in higher education classrooms. However, the simultaneous achievement of both goals is generally not a target for single projects or even single programs. A 4-year project…

Clickers are a popular tool in large science classes. The authors find that clickers can also be used in small undergraduate- and graduate-level science classes, and to some extent also in laboratory classes, to achieve the same purposes as in large classes. Issues that can be addressed using clickers include fully engaging all students,…

Research shows that many students hold misconceptions related to plant functions (Hershey 2004). Some of these students will become teachers with little content understanding to identify their students' misconceptions about plants (Amir and Tamir 1994). The literature on teaching about plants doesn't help; it contains frequent errors,…

Introduces the Mass Media Mistake, an exercise in which students engage in a healthy skepticism of chemistry in the printed world, rewrite the example correctly, and discuss the consequences of the original error on the unsuspecting reader. (Contains 13 references.) (ASK)

Active engagement in the classroom is one of the best tools available for overcoming conceptual difficulties. Science educators agree that students of all ages learn more by participating actively in the interpretation of scientific phenomena (NAS 2003; NSF 1998). In this article, the authors describe demonstrations in class using paper wads as an…

Describes ways a teacher can depict science as a form of thinking that leads to a more consistent, coherent, and comprehensive picture of nature. Indicates that this approach to science can foster in students a better understanding of why scientific truth changes. (RT)

Describes an interdisciplinary approach to science learning in settings usually associated with the humanities or social sciences. Explains the program, its rewards and results, the self and identity seminar, why the program works, and ways of adapting the program. (RT)

Describes the "Physics by Inquiry" course that is designed to address student misconceptions. Explains how the course was taught at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro for teachers and how it was taught at Ohio State University for elementary-education majors. Concludes the course is exportable to many different environments…

Describes a study in which paradoxes about seasons, hemispheres, and altitude were used to teach concepts in climatology. The misconceptions commonly held about the earth-sun distance relationship were used as an instructional strategy with an experimental group, which outgained the control group on an achievement test. (TW)

Discussed is the use of writing as a tool to monitor student growth and development. The value of writing to help overcome obstacles such as misconceptions and preconceptions is stressed. A concept map of a hierarchy of writing strategies is provided. Stressed is the value of writing in the development of process skills. (CW)