Chemical principles are taught in elementary education across much of the United States because the "National Science Education Standards" include concepts about the nature of matter, states of matter, and changes in matter among other science concepts within the first to fifth grade levels. "Chemicals" is a word related to the nature of matter…

Nearly two centuries ago, Fourier discovered that any periodic function of period T can be presented as a sum of sine waveforms of frequencies equal to an integer times the fundamental frequency [omega] = 2[pi]/T (Fourier's series). It is impossible to overestimate the importance of Fourier's discovery, and all physics or engineering students…

Many science problems require students to convert units. While this skill may not get the attention that more central science concepts do, teachers in the middle school and early high school grades will be doing their students a great service by leaving them with a strong understanding of both the skill itself and the reasons behind it. When the…

Science education research has recommended cooperative inquiry based science in the primary science context for more than two decades but after more than 20 years, student achievement in science has not substantially improved. This study, through direct observation and analysis, investigated content-related student interactions in an authentic…

We have conducted an education project to communicate the wave energy concept to high school students. A virtual reality system that combines both hardware and software is developed in this project to simulate the buoy-wave interaction. This first-of-its-kind wave energy unit is portable and physics-based, allowing students to conduct a number of…

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of mobile learning among young learners. Specifically, we investigated whether the use of mobile devices for data collection during field trips outside the classroom could enhance fourth graders' learning about the parts of the flower and their functions, flower pollinators and the process of…

This article describes the use of project-based instruction in activities and labs intended to develop higher-order thinking skills with high school students and pre-service teachers through the use of soap making.

In this paper, we discuss the individuals' "roles", "responsibilities", and "routine activities", along with their "goals" and "intentions" in two different contexts--a school science context and a university research context--using sociological lenses. We highlight the distinct characteristics of…

This study investigated preservice science teachers' uses of inscriptions in their peer teaching activities and was guided by the following research questions: (1) What kinds of inscriptions and inscriptional practices do preservice science teachers use in their peer teaching activity? and (2) How and for what purposes do preservice science…

This study uses log file traces to examine differences between high-and low-achieving students' strategic actions in varying learning situations. In addition, this study illustrates, in detail, what strategic and self-regulated learning constitutes in practice. The study investigates the learning patterns that emerge in learning situations…

In this article Jonny Sluman describes how he adapted an interactive DVD quiz game at a Christmas family get-together into an exciting, creative science activity to teach his students. The rounds included: a "quick fire" question round, a "what happened next" round, a music round, and a "spot the difference" round.…

ARKive is an initiative of the UK-based wildlife and educational charity, Wildscreen, whose mission is to promote the conservation of the world's biodiversity through the power of wildlife imagery. ARKive aims to produce a comprehensive wildlife guide to the natural world for those who cannot travel there by working with the world's very best…

The need to reform science teacher preparation programs has been pointed out in research (Bryan and Abell in "J Res Sci Teach" 36:121-140, 1999; Bryan and Atwater in "Sci Educ" 8(6):821-839, 2002; Harrington and Hathaway in "J Teach Educ" 46(4):275-284, 1995). Science teachers are charged with the responsibility of…

A shared conference presentation describes two ways of bringing education for sustainable development into education. The first part concentrated on putting science into outdoor learning backed up by a series of mind-mapping activities. The second was about linking schools with their surrounding communities to develop ways of working together. An…

Despite the increase in marine science curriculum in secondary schools, marine science is not generally required curricula and has been largely deemphasized or ignored in relation to earth science, biology, chemistry, and physics. I call for the integration and implementation of marine science more fully in secondary science education through…