Presents hands-on activities that give students a head start in learning the vocabulary and basic theory involved in understanding atomic structure. Uses beads to represent protons, neutrons, and electrons and string to represent orbitals. (DDR)

Argues that it is easier to transform schools and the process of schooling when social, cultural, political, and economic issues frame the discourse about how to ensure that all students have access to an equitable education. (DDR)

Challenges some commonly-held beliefs about what primary children can and cannot learn about astronomy. (Contains 16 references.) (Author/WRM)

Trans-disciplinary educational approaches hold the promise of helping students see real-life issues in an organic rather than a fragmented manner and be able to apply knowledge to address these issues in an organic manner. Presents reasons for organizing trans-disciplinary instruction around contemporary environmental issues. (Contains 14…

Describes a dramatic chemical demonstration in which chemicals that are black and white combine to produce a colorless liquid. Reactants include tincture of iodine, bleach, white vinegar, Epsom salt, vitamin C tablets, and liquid laundry starch. (DDR)

Discusses previous attempts to confront the issues of how to deal with the competing views of science. Suggests an alternative approach for integrating nature of science issues into the school science curriculum. States that educators must accept that no single nature of science exists. Includes references. (CMK)

Describes the development, implementation, and results of a pond life elementary student research project. Utilizing the pond life example, provides guidelines for children's research projects including the implementation of the K-W-L (know-want to know- learned) strategy with the children's reports/projects. Provides resources utilized in the…

Studies how the cultural context of curriculum policy relates to what students are taught in the classroom by using data from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). Explores how what constitutes school science varies from one culture/nation to another, and that these differences pervade all instantiations of curriculum.…

Presents the results of a two-year project to implement recommendations for reform of college-level introductory science courses. Studies student reactions in a course required for biology majors and concludes that critical thinking skills can be successfully integrated with the study of process in science. (Contains 30 references.) (DDR)

Describes trends in students' explanations of biological change in organisms. Student responses to questions on how graphically depicted phenomena occur were analyzed and most students were unable to offer causal explanations. (Contains 27 references.) (DDR)

This article presents research on students' understanding of basic concepts in Graph Theory. Students' understanding is analyzed through the lens of the theoretical framework of reducing abstraction (Hazzan, 1999). As it turns out, in spite of the relative simplicity of the concepts that are introduced in the introductory part of a traditional…

In this paper, we report on a study of the beliefs of chemistry teachers about the teaching and learning of chemistry in upper secondary education in The Netherlands. This study was conducted in the context of the planning of a national revision of the chemistry curriculum towards a context-based approach. Chemistry teachers' beliefs were…

In the autumn of 2004, an interdisciplinary social science course entitled "Remembering, Forgetting and Forgiveness: Justice and Reconciliation from the National to the International" was offered to undergraduate students at the University of Tampere, Finland. The course had 49 students from 10 different countries on three continents. A…

At the beginning of each year, teachers have the daunting task of deciding which concepts and skills to teach their students. Many teachers feel the pressure to teach "the whole book". This pressure comes in multiple forms. There is ever-increasing pressure to perform well on state, national, and international exams. An added pressure is the…

A recent UK House of Commons report on Science 14-19 identified problems with coursework and argued for a greater emphasis on teaching and assessment of scientific literacy. This paper describes a written test for procedural understanding, given to 15 year olds, that addresses both of these issues. Comparisons are made between the scores on a…