This article examines the impact of a professional development program aimed at encouraging high school teachers to include more modern physics in their enacted classroom curricula through improved content and pedagogical knowledge. The program was implemented with 17 high school physics teachers (three were the focal point of this study) in…

In common with many other countries, the Iranian science curriculum does not introduce primary children to atoms and molecules but instead leaves the teaching of these concepts until high school. This paper challenges this practice and describes the changes in elementary Iranian children's understanding of atoms and molecules following a 10-h…

This study addressed teachers' perceptions of the effect of online teacher professional development programs (OTPDPs) on their professional development. This five-month study focused on four aspects of OTPDPs: (1) Teachers' perceptions on OTPDPs, (2) the impact of OTPDPs on lesson planning, (3) the impact of OTPDPs on STEM teaching, and (4) the…

This paper aimed to determine primary school teachers' practices and classroom examples regarding culturally responsive education (CRE) in their life science courses. The study was conducted with the participation of 20 teachers, half of whom were employed in a primary school in Gaziantep province and the other half employed in the PIKTES…

The performance in biology at the secondary level has not been as good as expected. This has been a matter of concern. Thus, there has been a continuous focus on exploring newer innovative learner-centered and friendly instructional strategies to enhance understanding and retention in biology. This study, therefore, determined the effects of…

Dropout and low academic performance at university level constitute a big current challenge. In this work, materials comprising different interactive tools were developed following instructional design, rooted in the cognitive load theory. They were applied in a first-year lecture chemistry course to tackle low academic performance and high…

Scientific literacy is an important skill for students' success, given the characteristics of today's society. However, not all students have a natural predisposition toward science, chemistry in particular. Considering the relevance of transdisciplinary learning, schools should foster the scientific abilities for which students may have less…

To help educators deliver their physiology laboratory courses remotely, we developed an inexpensive, customizable hardware kit along with freely available teaching resources. We based the course design on four principles that should allow students to conduct insightful experiments on different physiological systems. First, the experimental setup…

Long before the "Next Generation Science Standards" ("NGSS") were formalized, sensors and other probeware engaged students in science and engineering practices (Metcalf and Tinker 2004). A new generation of probeware based on modern Internet of Things (IoT) technologies is beginning to expand the ways that students can…

The Integrated Concentration in Science (iCons) 4-year program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst was designed to promote interdisciplinary STEM collaboration in the solution of real-world problems and encourage student independence and interdependence through a student-centered teaching approach that structures all projects as group…

The current work explores the secondary school teachers' and students' perception on web-based discussions in teaching and learning and its potentiality to enhance students' performance in organic chemistry. A mixed approaches typically interviews and achievement tests were applied for collecting qualitative and quantitative data respectively for…

We introduce two new software tools, Bongojontro and Bongojontro Baksobandi, aimed at reducing the barriers to programming for native speakers of Bengali, the fifth most spoken language in the world. The highlights of these software include programming in the native language of Bengali, simpler construction of programs which is friendly for…

Scientists rely heavily on tree-ring records to better understand climate variability of the past millennium. Tree rings can also be utilized to give students a window into paleoclimate research, the methods scientists use, and the importance of scientific findings. Here, we present five online labs that introduce undergraduate students to the…

Innovative didactive strategies such as online learning and flipped classroom can improve student performance while maximizing university resources and personnel. Assessing how students perceive courses designed using these strategies, as well as perform within them, is becoming increasingly important. An introductory soil science course at a…

The paper reports about a study that examines changes in teachers' incorporation of epistemic practices in their design of engineering lessons and compares them to their views about the nature of engineering knowledge across 100 hours of professional development. Nineteen K-8 teachers in the USA, who were new to teaching engineering as part of a…