Explores problem-based learning as a strategy for teaching analytical science theory and laboratory practice to a cohort of first year undergraduate biomedical students (N=48). Findings indicate that students feel the approach helps their understanding of theory practice connections. (DDR)

Presents an activity in which students are assigned occupations that rely on specific minerals. To obtain the needed minerals, students learn how to trade services and commodities. Includes details on preparation, modeling behaviors, and printed materials. (DDR)

Contrasts naive beliefs about the nature of science with science as it appears from sociological and philosophical study, feminist critique, and insights from multicultural education. Pragmatic school science is situated within a framework that questions how we know and the recognition that even high-status knowledge can be challenged. (AIM)

Provides details of a middle school science program that involves students in real fieldwork on a topic of their choice. Focuses on student research in estuary and seashore ecosystems. Includes proposal format and scoring rubric. (DDR)

Details an ocean-based lesson and provides background information on the designation of 1998 as the "Year of the Ocean" by the United Nations. Contains activities on the poster insert that can help raise student awareness of coastal-zone hazards. (DDR)

Focuses on how to help children use everyday conversation to develop a scientific point of view by facilitating the interplay between experience and language. Argues that enhanced language skills enable children to better communicate their observations, draw conclusions from what they have observed, and discover patterns in their conclusions. (SD)

Explores the development and status of earth-science education in the United States. Compares the U.S. case with those of Israel, England, and Wales. Discusses the need to share common concerns and visions between cultures and communities. Contains 45 references. (Author/WRM)

Describes the activities of two prominent science educators who presided over Australian science curriculum reforms during the 1960s and 1970s. Represents the educators' actions as heroic and describe how the Heroes shaped, modified, and united the culture through referents, rituals, and artifacts. Speculates on the importance of heroic activity…

Illustrates the use of a module used in Mexican schools that focuses on survival on a deserted island. Explores questions related to inhabitants of the island, predator-prey relationships, identification of natural resources, water and food issues, and health considerations. (DDR)

This Italian contribution to the STTIS (science teacher training in an information society) investigations of transformations of curriculum innovations looks at the implementation of the use of real-time experiments and images (RTEI), in which computer data acquisition and display is built in to aspects of science teaching. Certain critical…

Recent literature in science education suggests that, to transform girls' participation, learning, and identities within school science, we must think about ways to engage girls in different kinds of educational activities that promote broader meanings of science and scientist. This study was designed to examine more deeply this call for a changed…

Science educators face constant tradeoffs between allocating time to important topics and including more topics in the curriculum. We study 3,000 students experiencing 4 increasingly streamlined versions of a computer-enhanced middle school thermodynamics curriculum to investigate the impact of instructional time on knowledge integration.…

This paper describes briefly the development and key features of one of the major context-based courses for upper high school students, Salters Advanced Chemistry. It goes on to consider the research evidence on the impact of the course, focusing on teachers' views, and, in particular, on students' affective and cognitive responses. The research…

Earlier studies [Mallow, J. V. (1994). Gender-related science anxiety: A first binational study. "Journal of Science Education and Technology" 3: 227-238; Udo, M. K., Ramsey, G. P., Reynolds-Alpert, S., and Mallow, J. V. (2001). Does physics teaching affect gender-based science anxiety? "Journal of Science Education and Technology" 10: 237-247] of…

This study examined prospective elementary teachers' learning about scientific inquiry in the context of an innovative life science course. Research questions included: (1) What do prospective elementary teachers learn about scientific inquiry within the context of the course? and (2) In what ways do their experiences engaging in science…