Distinguishes between Galileo's original 20-year trial and the subsequent 350-year controversy and the historical aftermath of the original episode from the reflective commentary on it. Provides an in-depth characterization and sketch of the historical aftermath and reflective commentary. Contains 90 references. (Author/WRM)

Describes the creation and use of a cost-effective model for demonstrating osmosis using a beaker, wire screen, oats, and bean particles. (WRM)

Examines how science educators and educational researchers have drawn on the fragmented teachings of science studies about the nature of science, and how they have used those teachings as a resource in their own projects. Analyzes some of the deep assumptions about the relationship between science, school science, and children's learning.…

Explains a change in sign convention for thermodynamic work. (CCM)

Describes a framework for identifying and classifying students' alternative conceptions and unscientific patterns of reasoning within a particular scientific domain. Provides a basic system for indicating how much researchers know about students' non-scientific conceptions and reasoning. Suggests how the framework may prove useful for…

Highlights the importance of the Human Genome Project in educating the public about genetics. Discusses four challenges that science educators must address: teaching for conceptual understanding, the nature of science, the personal and social impact of science and technology, and the principles of technology. Contains 45 references. (JRH)

Describes the use of carbide lights as an excellent mechanism for introducing or reviewing many basic chemistry concepts including elements and compounds, endothermic and exothermic reactions, physical and chemical changes, and balancing chemical equations. (JRH)

Presents a simple demonstration that illustrates the concept that the formation of a gas in a chemical reaction results in work being done on the surroundings. (JRH)

Explores A level students' conceptions of some common chemical reactions. Findings indicate that students apply frameworks consistently across groups of events that they perceive to be similar. What was found to be lacking was the scientists' view of all the reactions being regarded as realizations of the same underlying conceptual model. Contains…

Explains the different belief systems and conflicts between scientists and creationists regarding the concept of evolution. Recommends that students be exposed to intellectual problems from the earliest grades so they will be able to address the evolution/creationism question by high school. (YDS)

Examines textbooks used in college-level chemistry courses for misleading or erroneous statements leading to student misconceptions about electrochemistry. (CCM)

This article offers a plausible domain-general explanation for why some concepts of processes are resistant to instructional remediation although other, apparently similar concepts are more easily understood. The explanation assumes that processes may differ in ontological ways: that some processes (such as the apparent flow in diffusion of dye in…

A dynamic systems framework was applied to understand the influence of friendship on antisocial behavior from childhood (age 9-10) through adulthood (age 24-25) for Oregon Youth Study males (N = 206). Boys were videotaped interacting with a friend at ages 14, 16, and 18, and deviant content and interpersonal processes were independently coded.…

A wine analysis for most is: take a sip, and either like it or don't. Not so for the students taking wine analysis courses at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California. In the college's new Wine Analysis Laboratory, students learn how to run chemical analyses of wines and compare chemical profiles of wines. Professor…

This article describes a classroom learning experience at a Head Start program in Boston, Massachusetts. In this classroom, children were taught how to integrate mathematics and science skills--from exploring shape, pattern, measurement, and spatial relationships to developing an understanding of stability, balance, and properties of materials--by…