In this article, newly qualified teacher (NQT) Alexander Odeneal shares some ideas that primary teachers could use to capture pupils' interest and support scientific discussions. The article offers four different activities and an explanation of why they do what they do to support the non-specialist teacher leading the lesson. Each activity…

New experiments for undergraduate students are needed to stimulate experiential learning in the laboratory while providing valuable training for future career development. Iodine deficiency remains a major public health concern that is monitored by measuring the median urinary iodide concentration of a population. In this context, we have…

A common method that scientists use to validate a theory is to utilize known principles and laws to produce results on specific settings, which can be assessed using the appropriate experimental methods and apparatuses. Smartphones have various sensors built-in and could be used for measuring and logging data in physics experiments. In this work,…

This article reports one eye-tracking and one sentence-completion experiment, examining the antecedent preferences for plural anaphora "they" and demonstrative "these." Our results show that the antecedent-grouping preference depends on type of referring expressions: specifically, the preference for "they" is to refer…

When Yang-Hann Kim received the Rossing Prize in Acoustics Education at the 2015 meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, he stressed the importance of offering visual depictions of sound fields when teaching acoustics. Often visualization methods require specialized equipment such as microphone arrays or scanning apparatus. We present a…

A new method for teaching advanced laboratories at the undergraduate level is presented. The intent of this approach is to get students more engaged in the lab experience and apply critical thinking skills to solve problems. The structure of the lab is problem-based and provides students with a research-like experience. Students read the current…

Students find it hard to understand acid-base homeostasis and the mechanisms involved in compensating for acid-base imbalances, including the role of the lungs and kidneys in this process. We have developed a laboratory activity based on collaborative problem-based learning and human patient simulators (HPSs) to teach this topic. Students (n=50)…

After seeing several reports in newspapers making claims about the cause of death after children had swallowed button batteries, a team of students decided to try to establish which (if any) claims were true. The findings were reported in the Schools Exhibition at the ASE Annual Conference 2018 in Liverpool and are shared in detail here. (A…

The application of the Reaction Monte Carlo (RxMC) algorithm to standard textbook problems in chemical reaction equilibria is discussed. The RxMC method is a molecular simulation algorithm for studying the equilibrium properties of reactive systems, and therefore provides the opportunity to develop computer-based "experiments" for the…

We describe a simple, cost-effective experiment to demonstrate cardiovascular integration of heart rate and blood pressure to accommodate the environmental and dietary factors of gravity and caffeine. Specific learning objectives associated with this include understanding the effects of posture on blood pressure and heart rate, coupled with the…

The present paper examines a patterning activity that was organised within a teaching experiment in order to analyse the different uses of variables by secondary school students. The activity presented in the paper can be categorised as a pictorial/geometric linear pattern. We adopted a student-oriented perspective for our analysis, in order to…

Manipulative environments play a fundamental role in inquiry-based science learning, yet how they impact learning is not fully understood. In a series of two studies, we develop the argument that manipulative environments (MEs) influence the kind of inquiry behaviors students engage in, and that this influence realizes through the affordances of…

The concept of energy is of central significance, as it is a core disciplinary idea in chemistry and a cross-cutting concept in the sciences. This study sought to investigate student understanding of energetics and associated thermodynamic functions in chemical reactions and processes across a sample of introductory-level undergraduate chemistry…

Biochemistry and molecular techniques are used for the development of the scientific practice of students. To improve both the teaching and learning quality and promote the students' motivation, this article outlines an interactive "Virtual Simulation and Actual Operation Combined" approach by using a tailored virtual practice-learning…

In the last decade, a powerful tool has been given to physics teachers to visualize thermodynamic phenomena. Thermal imaging cameras are fascinating devices opening the world of (even small) temperature changes and being able to uncover hidden manifestations of many processes around us. This paper describes a few qualitative thermal imaging…