The purpose of this study was to report the results of a nationwide survey of Taiwanese high schools students' understandings about electric circuits. The study involved two stratified random samples consisting of 7,145 students in Grades 8 and 9, and 2,857 students in Grade 11, accounting for about 2.3% of the total enrolment in the corresponding…

This study documented the ways in which the spontaneous narratives of a focus group of young children reflected the ways in which these children constructed meaning about their world and their place in it. Participants were six kindergartners who engaged in extended episodes of imaginary, dramatic play and produced complex descriptive narratives…

This article presents a case study of academic language instruction in a high school "English Learner Science" course. It illustrates how a teacher's understanding of academic language affects her instruction and students' opportunities for learning. We examine a transcript of classroom discourse for the "didactic tension" that exists between this…

The utilization of biology research resources, coupled with a "learning by inquiry" approach, has great potential to aid students in gaining an understanding of fundamental biological principles. To help realize this potential, we have developed a Web portal for undergraduate biology education, WormClassroom.org, based on current research…

To support student learning in biochemistry and related courses, a simulation program, the Protein Purification Program, offers an alternative multimedia-based tool. This program has now been translated to produce a Thai version. However, translation from the original into the Thai language is limited by the differences between the language…

The U.S. Military Academy (USMA) at West Point is responsible for developing in its graduates literacy in the sciences that renders them capable of solving complex real-world problems. Throughout their careers as officers in the military, graduates will be called upon to view the physical world in a disciplined and objective manner, with an…

This study describes one kindergarten classroom in which informational books and other nonfiction resources were used in the context of a long-term scientific study. Children became proficient in locating information and interpreting content-specific textual features in the process of making sense of their scientific observations and sharing them…

This case study examines the alignment between the Intended Curriculum, Implemented Curriculum and Achieved Curriculum of a fourth grade inquiry based unit, "Food Chains and Webs." Specifically addressed are how the curriculum was modified to meet state standards, how teachers were trained, and how assessment of curricular implementation was…

The term scientific literacy is defined differently in different contexts. The term literacy simply refers to the ability for one to read and write, but recent studies in language literacy have extended this definition. New literacy research seeks a redefinition in terms of how skills are used rather than how they are learned. Contemporary…

This paper describes an evaluation by two science educators of the pilot offering of an interdisciplinary critical issues course in Science, Technology, and Society (STS) designed to fulfill the natural science general degree requirements at a major university. This social science general studies course is an STS interdisciplinary course that…

An effective way to teach the concept of image is to give students a model of human vision which incorporates a simple mechanism of depth perception. In this study two almost identical versions of a curriculum in geometrical optics were created. One used a mechanistic, interpretive eye model, and in the other the eye was modeled as a passive,…

Benjamin Franklin was the first great American scientist. This book contains activities which are organized into six subjects that Benjamin Franklin investigated: observation and experimentation, meteorology, electricity, sound and music, paper and printing, and lenses and vision. At the end of each chapter is a list of resources and ideas. The…

A study examined the role that instructions to generate analogies can play when 56 middle-school eighth-grade and seventh-grade students learn a science textbook unit. The target concept on the unit was the cell and the key features of the concept were the cell parts and their functions. Prior to studying the unit on the cell, the students…

This resource guide is a source of current information for teachers, principals, administrators, science curriculum specialists, parents, and those involved in systemic reform of science education. These curriculum materials and other resources support inquiry-based science teaching that fosters an understanding of science concepts through…

This book is organized around a set of simple observational physics activities that stimulate questioning and answering and encourage the generation of answers to stimulate individual creativity. The activities integrate drawing, counting, measuring, predicting, recording, hypothesizing, and verifying. The activities are designed to sharpen…