The present case centers on a socioscientific issues-based lesson taught by a preservice teacher (PST) in an AP Biology class. The PST designed and delivered a lesson on disease transmission and ways to avoid infection with connections to the COVID-19 pandemic mask mandates and vaccine reticence. The Principal received several emails from parents…

This action research case study explores the impact of a culturally and socially diverse Advanced Placement Chemistry curriculum on student and teacher experiences. This study emerged due to my lack of multicultural teaching practices, which limited meaningful connections for students of diverse backgrounds. Once aware of this deficiency, I…

This action research case study investigates the integration a culturally and socially diverse curriculum in an Advanced Placement Chemistry course. Motivated by a recognition of limited multicultural teaching practices, four thematic units grounded in culturally relevant pedagogy and social reconstructionism were created and implemented. The use…

When our school implemented AP Physics 1, I wanted to include a project that would extend over time, use more advanced data analysis, and teach students about handling experimental error. Using a donated 5-inch Newtonian telescope and an entry-level digital camera, the students gathered data from digital images of the four Galilean moons, Io,…

Electric potential is one of the most challenging concepts taught in high school physics classes due to the abstract nature of the concept. When taught, electric potential is often taught using a poorly triangulated set of instructional analogies, each possessing different strengths and limitations. Within this paper we share our learning from a…

Students often struggle in AP Physics 1 because they have not been previously trained to develop qualitative arguments. Extensive literature on multiple representations and qualitative reasoning provides strategies to address this challenge. Table I presents three examples, including SiQuENC, which I adapted from a strategy promoted by Etkina et…

Statistical methods are indispensable to the practice of science. But statistical hypothesis testing can seem daunting, with P-values, null hypotheses, and the concept of statistical significance. This article explains the concepts associated with statistical hypothesis testing using the story of "the lady tasting tea," then walks the…

Effective diffusion of educational innovations is essential for evidence-based practices to have broad impacts on student learning. One of the barriers to such diffusion is the large inertia associated with changing one's teaching practices. Educational disruptions, such as COVID-19, may lower this barrier by making business-as-usual no longer…

This review presents theoretical underpinnings supporting microethnographic-discourse analytic (ME/DA) approaches to studying educational phenomena. The review is presented in two parts. Part 1 provides an analytic review of two seminal reviews of literature that frame theoretical and methodological developments of microethnography and functions…

This paper is a quasi-experimental investigation into the effectiveness of using analogy in teaching new and unfamiliar physics concepts to students enrolled in a British curriculum school in the United Arab Emirates. The students (N = 34) were randomly assigned to one of two groups: the control group (N = 17) following the traditional teaching…

Project-based learning is popular with many parents, students, and teachers because of its focus on problem-solving, critical thinking, creativity, and real-world application (Gallup, 2019). It encourages teachers to act as facilitators while students actively engage in teacherand student-posed learning challenges, working alone and in groups on…

Science educators have begun to explore how students have opportunities to not only view and manipulate simulations, but also to analyze the complex sources of data they generate. While scholars have documented the characteristics and the effects of using simulations as a source of data in face-to-face, K-12 classrooms, how simulations can be…

The conjunction of three events has encouraged me to devote significant time to thinking about the pedagogical framework in my introductory courses. The three events were: doing a workshop addressing the Advanced Placement restructuring of the Physics B course with a stronger focus on critical thinking, finding out that "The Physics…

Background and Context: Computing is being integrated into a range of STEM disciplines. Still, computing remains inaccessible to many minoritized groups, especially girls and certain people of color. In this mixed methods study, we investigated racial and gendered patterns of equity and inequity in high school physics classrooms incorporating…

Using the water molecule as a metaphor, Marilyn Doerr presents a study of a Montessori high school that combines the elements of Montessori with International Baccalaureate (IB) and other institutions in the surrounding community that enrich the experience of the students. The pedagogy of the high school, she explains, must be based on an…