Describes an acid rain demonstration for helping students understand chemistry concepts. (PR)

Describes a course where students design and construct a sundial, once they understand the apparent movement of the sun. Explains general issues of daily astronomy and describes the design and construction of three sundials. (PR)

Describes database-driven Web pages that dynamically display different information each time the page is accessed in response to the user's needs. Highlights include information management; online assignments; grade tracking; updating Web pages; creating database-driven Web pages; and examples of how they have been used for a high school physics…

Investigated teachers' declarative metacognitive knowledge of higher-order thinking skills in the context of an inservice project designed to foster higher-order thinking in junior high school science classes. The study found that teachers' intuitive knowledge of metacognition of thinking skills was unsatisfactory for the purpose of teaching…

Argues that science should be taught in a conceptual manner in elementary and middle school, after which (and only after) formulas, concrete strategies, and specific, isolated facts should be taught. Discusses linear versus conceptual learning, how boys and girls learn, how middle school teachers can approach this, preparing new science teachers,…

A pilot study of laboratory data logging in three secondary schools found that when computers were used students spent less time measuring, recording, and reporting data and more time observing and discussing. Qualitative changes, however, were much more context dependent. Contextual factors were computer skill, physical nature of the topic under…

Describes an evaluation program designed to assess the effectiveness of technology enhanced instruction within the context of the Technology Enhanced Secondary Science Instruction (TESSI) project, a field-based research program of technology integration into secondary science. Includes analyses of student enrollment and achievement, ethnographic…

Examined the effect of part-time work intensity on high school mathematics and science coursework completed and its indirect effect on 12th grade achievement. Longitudinal data from a nationally representative sample indicated that there was a significant negative effect of part-time work intensity on coursework. The indirect effect on 12th-grade…

Reports on a case study that examines the teaching and learning impact of technology from the perspective of students participating in a long-term study of technology implementation. The study is situated within the context of the Technology Enhanced Secondary Science Instruction (TESSI) project. Contains 65 references. (DDR)

Describes the development of a new measure of attitude towards science for use among secondary school pupils which operationalizes the affective attitudinal domain. Scale norms demonstrate that males record a more positive attitude towards science than females, and that younger pupils record a more positive attitude than older pupils. (Contains 78…

The research reported in this study focuses on the design and evaluation of learning environments that support the teaching and learning of argumentation in a scientific context. The research took place over 2 years, between 1999 and 2001, in junior high schools in the greater London area. The research was conducted in two phases. In phase 1,…

One set of ideas at the core of the National Science Education Standards (NSES) Science and Technology Standards is that of engaging middle school students in activities that help them develop their understandings of technological design. More precisely, students should be able to identify appropriate problems for technological design, design a…

A team of teachers, scientists, and high school students at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston has developed activities to teach concepts in learning through an inquiry-based laboratory method. The Learning Education and Research Network (LEARN) activities were field tested at the Society for Neuroscience Conference, in the…

Throughout the United States various individuals and groups have tried to subvert science education by removing or weakening the treatment of evolution in state science-education standards. Most states' science-education standards support the teaching of evolution, but many in the general public and some policymakers want science classrooms to…

Scientific knowledge is tentative and open to revision. This sense of tentativeness, or changeability, is missing in the way textbooks and teachers often portray the nature of science (NOS). Instead, students are left with the impression that the scientific method produces sure knowledge and that they can uncritically accept the knowledge because…