The ability to develop and use models to explain phenomena is a key component of the "Next Generation Science Standards", and without examples of what modeling instruction looks like in the reality of classrooms, it will be difficult for us as a field to understand how to move forward in designing curricula that foreground the practice…

A discussion of audio tones in the physics classroom will include mention of their frequency. The frequency of a periodic signal is a well-defined quantity that can readily be measured. A concept related to frequency is that of pitch. Pitch is a perceived quantity that cannot be measured directly and is most important when listeners characterize…

When a ball bounces obliquely on a horizontal surface, the bottom of the ball stretches horizontally and then vibrates backward. The resulting ball spin depends sensitively on the transverse vibration frequency. A simple model is presented to describe the effect, showing how the stored elastic energy can result in additional spin.

There is clear scientific evidence linking climate change to human activity. Despite this, we still find numerous public figures claiming there is no climate change, or that climate change data is "fake news." Societal polarization around climate change (Worland 2017; Pernett 2017; McCright and Dunlap 2011) can provide students with…

This January marked the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 1 fire. On Jan. 27, 1967, the interior of NASA's AS-204 command module (CM), occupied by American astronauts Roger Chaffee, Virgil "Gus" Grissom, and Ed White, caught fire during a rehearsal of its scheduled Feb. 21 launch. By the time the ground crew was able to open the hatch, the…

As a boy I spent many hours skipping stones across the surface of the water on the shore of Lake Michigan. The challenge was to get as many skips or as much distance as possible. Zero skips was a bust. One or two skips was disappointing, three or four skips was mediocre, and six or more skips was exhilarating. The angle of the stone with respect…

Physics and chemistry students learn several methods to determine the density of materials. While measuring the mass of materials is usually simple, volume measurements are more complex. For simple shapes the volume may be determined by measuring its geometry; for more complex shapes students often use Archimedes' principle. However, neither of…

A thorough appreciation of the three-dimensional arrangement of atoms in molecules is crucial for new students of chemistry and critical to students continuing their studies in chemistry. We discuss current use of molecular models in education and investigate a variety of techniques used over the years to introduce students to atomic orbitals.…

Learning in a virtual environment has been found to foster students' affective responses, indicating the importance of exploring the factors which affect students' learning when engaged in a virtual game. This study aimed to explore the relationships among students' epistemic curiosity, situational interest, and learning engagement in an…

Part of learning science is practicing reasoning, but some of the most common approaches to science instruction offer students little opportunity to do that, especially in the whole-class setting of large-enrollment courses. We present and closely examine a single episode of instructor listening--an instructor deliberately adopting a stance, and…

Biochemistry and molecular biology students are asked to understand and analyze the structures of small molecules and complex three-dimensional (3D) macromolecules. However, most tools to help students learn molecular visualization skills are limited to two-dimensional (2D) images on screens and in textbooks. The virtual reality (VR) App Nanome,…

Climate change education is a key concept in pre-collegiate curricula across the world. However, teachers experience barriers to effectively teaching about climate change. One avenue for addressing some of the barriers is through scientist-teacher partnerships where a scientist offers real-world examples of how climate change is studied. This…

The competence-based approach has raised important questions in education regarding the content of learning, the way teachers teach and students learn, and the assessment of learning. General education in Latvia has been reformed, and the content of competence-based education was introduced in 2023. In STEM curricula, the content is developed in…

This autoethnographic study is part of a funded project involving a school science teacher and university science education researchers. In this project, we incorporated nature of science (NOS) into the fifth-grade curriculum and implemented it for a semester at a public school in Turkey. We adopted Reconceptualized Family Resemblance Approach to…

This study compares direct instruction to two constructivist approaches, namely experimentation and problem-based learning, in fifth-grade science learning in Hong Kong. Constructivist instructional approaches, contrary to direct instruction, stress on students' active role in constructing knowledge in learning. Experimentation and problem-based…