The Earthquake Machine (EML), a mechanical model of stick-slip fault systems, can increase student engagement and facilitate opportunities to participate in the scientific process. This article introduces the EML model and an activity that challenges ninth-grade students' misconceptions about earthquakes. The activity emphasizes the role of models…

Scale is one of the thematic threads that runs through nearly all of the sciences and is considered one of the major prevailing ideas of science. This study explored novice and experienced teachers' concepts of spatial scale with a focus on linear sizes from very small (nanoscale) to very large (cosmic scale). Novice teachers included…

Previous studies have indicated that A-level students in the UK and Singapore have difficulty learning the topic of ionisation energy. A two-tier multiple-choice instrument developed in Singapore in an earlier study, the Ionisation Energy Diagnostic Instrument, was administered to A-level students in the UK, advanced placement high school students…

The modeling instruction pedagogy for the teaching of physics has been proven to be quite effective at increasing the conceptual understanding and problem-solving abilities of students to a much greater extent than that of nonmodeling students. Little research has been conducted concerning the cognitive and metacognitive skills that modeling…

The purpose of this study was to investigate prospective chemistry teachers' knowledge about instructional strategies, one component of pedagogical content knowledge about introducing particulate theory, as well as sources of this knowledge. Twenty-two prospective chemistry teachers participated in the study. Data were collected by the means of a…

Objective and Participants: To investigate ethnic differences related to weight, the authors assessed body mass index, dysfunctional eating, receipt of health information, and perceived obstacles to healthy lifestyles of 210 ethnically diverse college women. Methods: The authors used the Eating Attitudes Test to assess dieting, food preoccupation,…

Objective: The authors' aim in this study was to determine, after adjustment for the effects of body mass index and socio-demographic measures, whether sex-specific weight control norms would have significant independent relationships with the weight control behavior of college women and men. Participants: The authors used an anonymous…

Everyday parent-child conversations may support children's scientific understanding. The types and frequency of parent-child science talk may vary with the cultural and schooling background of the participants, and yet most research in the USA focuses on highly schooled European-American families. This study investigated 40 Mexican-descent…

The possibility of life on other worlds is one of enormous fascination. This book emphasizes how intelligence and culture helped humans form a civilization that now has the technology to detect and communicate with possible extraterrestrial civilizations. Topics discussed include indications and characteristics of intelligence, the evolutionary…

This paper describes an attempt to facilitate students' learning of scientific concepts by using detectors that take as input physical information and output an instantiation of the concept. The principle hypothesis was that students would have a better understanding of the concept of image if they were taught to use a simplified, runnable model…

This book contains simple experiments through which students can learn about the properties of energy. These experiments include making a kitchen "volcano," a soda-pop "cannon," and a puffed-rice "scooter." Topics include: energy and work, fossil fuels, solar energy, kinetic energy, potential energy, mechanical energy, heat energy, sound energy,…

The experiment described is an excellent opportunity to apply theoretical concepts of distillation, thermodynamics of mixtures and process simulation at laboratory scale, and simultaneously enhance the ability of students to operate, control and monitor complex units.

Presents authors ideas regarding the teaching of college chemistry. Suggests information science may provide useful ideas and methods for chemists. (RH)

Proposes a new component in the analysis of a scientific work, which depends on certain thematic elements which underlie scientific endeavor and provide science with what constant identity it has. This "thematic analysis" allows the historian of science to view past science along another dimension. (MLH)