Outlines a program that was designed to be the first step in the development of an academic home for informal science education at the New York University. Aims at taking advantage of nonformal educational resources and bridging the formal and nonformal systems in order to provide people with access to an understanding of science and technology.…

Observes 16 students from five elementary science classes to examine how students use tools when constructing new knowledge during science instruction, how control of tools is actualized from pedagogical perspectives, how language and tool accessibility intersect, how gender intersects with tool use, and how competition for resources impacts…

Analyses the ways in which university-entrant science students carry out and communicate experimental activities, and identifies a model to explain characteristic communication practices. Observes the investigative strategies of participant students who have a lack of experience with laboratory work and scientific writing. Uses laboratory reports…

The theory that children's development of strategies-of-science experimentation is a consequence of developments in theory of mind was examined with 72 children in grades one, three, and five. Ability to predict, explain, and affect the reasoning of a doll or cartoon character predicted performance in planning controlled experiments and in…

Investigates the practices required for reading graphs in high school textbooks and scientific journals. Discusses the role of high school textbooks in the appropriation of authentic scientific graph-related practices. Finds that scientific journals provide more resources to facilitate graph reading and feature more elaborate descriptions and…

Criticizes introductory biology texts for merely describing living things in terms of what they can do as whole organisms and neglecting to consider the nature of life on a micro-scale. Presents possibilities for including such discussions in an introductory biology course. Contains 14 references. (WRM)

Argues for a system of quality control that discovers errors and communicates them to textbook users (students and teachers), and a system that keeps the worst textbooks off the market. (WRM)

Asks whether what is taught in science class only makes sense to someone who already understands science. Discusses school science in terms of four questions: (1) What is to be taught?; (2) What conditions promote learning?; (3) What do students learn?; and (4) What are the cognitive processes in learners' minds? (Contains 17 references.)…

Explains the scientific concepts, technical designs, and materials that make up incandescent light sources. (WRM)

Describes a study of students' (n=106) written questions about topics they considered extremely interesting and not very interesting. Finds that there were significant positive relationships for questions written for high and low interest levels, and also significant positive relationships between question level and achievement in reading,…

Describes a review of research that addresses the effectiveness of simulations in promoting scientific discovery learning and the problems that learners may encounter when using discovery learning. (WRM)

In response to Kavale and Forness (EC 630 380), this article, rooted in the author's experiences as a learning disabilities teacher, discusses assumptions of the original article concerning social critiques and Marxism; diagnosis and classification for research or for pedagogy; validity of constructs and instruments for mental retardation; and…

Discusses the existing dichotomy between the definition of weight and its implications in science education. Reviews the history and epistemology of the weight concept and its present status in instruction, and students' knowledge about weight. Suggests that a conceptual distinction between weight and gravitational force, and the replacement of…

This paper reports on a longitudinal study on how science student teachers' reasoning about a complex environmental issue developed through a teacher education programme in mathematics and science for grades 1-7 (ages 7-13). Of special interest was to follow the ways in which student teachers used scientific knowledge in their reasoning. The issue…

When evaluating instructional practices, adolescents (n = 128, ages 14-19) coordinated knowledge of epistemology, fairness, and motivation in their conceptions of procedural justice. Adolescents ranked the fairness and effectiveness of instructional practices differently for controversial and noncontroversial topics. They raised epistemological,…