Visual representations in molecular biology tend to follow a set of shared conventions for using certain shapes and symbols to convey information about the size and structure of nucleotides, genes, and chromosomes. Understanding how and why biologists use these conventions to represent DNA is a key part of visual literacy in molecular biology.…

Background/purpose. 21st-century skills are essential across all aspects of life in the modern era. Pre-service elementary school teachers must also develop computational thinking skills as part of the problem-solving process--one of the most critical 21st-century competencies. These skills are critical in science learning and serve as fundamental…

The purpose of this study is twofold: (1) to develop and validate a five-tier diagnostic instrument for respiration and photosynthesis; (2) to uncover senior high school students' genuine misconceptions in Mainland China and explore the characteristics of their sources and formation mechanisms. To achieve these aims, a five-tier diagnostic…

The objective of the current study was to identify an effective learning environment for kindergarten students as they acquire an initial understanding of scientific inquiry activities (SIA) and a simple (idealized) scientific inquiry cycle (SIC). The study aimed to examine (a) the effects of instructional support and (b) the role of similarity…

Appealing to students' affect in academic settings, such as demonstrating chemistry's relevance to their life, is one strategy instructors may use to support students' in learning. This study investigates the types of connections that students make to organic chemistry when responding to an open-ended writing assignment. Students enrolled in an…

The purpose of this study is to "meta"-analytically evaluate research that used chemical bonding-based interventions to improve academic performance. Through "meta"-analysis, the present study used several keyword patterns (e.g., chemical bonding, experimental, chemistry education, science education) via relevant databases…

Modeling is a core practice in science and is a meaningful way to learn the subject. This article introduces a modeling-based approach that highlights the idea that modeling is an iterative process and integrates the fundamental parts of scientists' work and key suggestions for teaching through modeling. The lesson "The Structure and Function…

This article analyzes how three mathematics preservice teachers (PSTs) reasoned quantitatively and covariationally while making sense of the Earth's energy budget (EB)--a model of energy circulation within the Earth's climate system--and discusses how their quantitative and covariational reasonings influenced their understanding of climate change.…

According to several studies, the three levels of representation in chemistry are the fundamental aspects of effective learning and understanding of chemistry. In this study, we aim to illustrate how students identify changes in the matter using eye-tracking and verbalizations. Five students observed chemical and physical phenomena depicted by…

The need for well-designed learning experiences about modern, anthropogenic climate change is great. In light of this need, many scholars have looked towards museums, arguing that as trusted institutions of informal learning, museums are uniquely positioned to support public engagement with contentious, impactful issues like climate change.…

Despite representations' central role in conveying chemical phenomena, mastering them is not trivial, given the wide variety of different conventions to interpret and use them. Furthermore, instructional approaches and materials may overlook explicit discussion on how students should reason with representations. To gather evidence that could guide…

This paper catalogs previous articles in "American Biology Teacher" on various aspects of teaching about science misinformation and identifies which of the core concepts are addressed in each. A concise overview of relevant themes is provided, along with how the concepts align with the Next Generation Science Standards. This may serve as…

I draw on the work of Bernard Stiegler and Charles Peirce to propose that "negentropic education" is education for "deproletarianizing" society through embracing the possibility of singularities, so we once again know how to live, make and do, and to theorize. We need to pay deep attention to our surroundings and to value our…

The study outlines the early-stage development of a free-response General Relativity Concept Inventory (GRCI), an educational instrument designed to test for conceptual understanding of General Relativity. Data were collected for the study by having 26 participants from General Relativity courses work through the questions on the GRCI. Interviews…

This article aims to simplify and facilitate the process of practical teaching of enzyme kinetics by utilizing minimal teaching laboratory requirements. Simultaneously, it ensures that students comprehend the enzyme kinetics experiment effectively. The focus is on teaching students how to estimate the maximum velocity (Vmax) and Michaelis constant…