The "IDRA Newsletter" serves as a vehicle for communication with educators, school board members, decision-makers, parents, and the general public concerning the educational needs of all children in Texas and across the United States. The theme of this issue is "Rejecting a Return to Tracking." Articles include: (1) Getting it…

To meet the demand for certified math and science teachers, alternative certification programs attempt to provide fast-track training and licensure of STEM-area educators (Goldhaber, Kreig, Theobald, & Brown, 2014). Teachers prepared in programs with a middle level specialization have been shown to participate in effective practices such as…

The purpose of this survey study was to examine the level of Malaysian students' motivation with regards to the learning of Physics at the secondary school level, and its influencing factors. The study was carried out on 337 Form Four students who took Physics as a subject, from six schools in a northern state of Malaysia--three from urban areas,…

This paper examines the relationship between teacher-related factors and student's attitudes towards Chemistry subject in secondary schools in Kenya. The paper is based on a study conducted in Bureti District in Kericho County, Kenya. This paper highlights issues on the teaching methods used by chemistry teachers, the teachers' availability to…

The Irish national discourse on curriculum and assessment reform at the Junior Cycle level has been fraught with controversy in the past two years. The introduction of the new curriculum and assessment framework in 2012 by the then Minister of Education, Ruairi Quinn has led to significant media coverage and teacher union response. In this paper,…

Student performance in a high school dual-enrollment chemistry course was compared with student performance in the corresponding traditional college course. The two courses were taught by the same instructor and evaluated using the same American Chemical Society (ACS) standardized examination. Interestingly, the high school dual-enrollment…

Technological advances continue to reshape the skill sets necessary for students to succeed both in the classroom and in the workforce. The ability to communicate information verbally and graphically can be viewed as a necessary skill that should be developed in a secondary technology education curriculum (Silva, 2008). This article outlines a…

Entertaining and educational experiments that can be conducted in a water park, illustrating physics concepts, principles and fundamental laws, are described. These experiments are suitable for students ranging from senior secondary school to junior university level. Newton's laws of motion, Bernoulli's equation, based on the conservation of…

This paper reports on a study of primary contextualization processes during science immersion trips and the resultant student learning. Four High School Ecology classes (n?=?67) and teachers participated. Through a pre-/post-assessment of science concept knowledge (Pathfinder Network Modeling) and follow-up interviews with students, it was…

This article describes a method of instruction using an active learning strategy for teaching stoichiometry through a process of gradual knowledge building. Students identify their misconceptions and progress through a sequence of questions based on the same chemical equation. An infrared device and software registered as the TurningPoint Audience…

Inquiry learning is a widely recognized method for fostering inquiry competence in science education. Nevertheless, there is discussion about how to best support students while working on inquiry tasks (in this case: experiments on causal relationships). To identify the kind of support students need in order to design experiments in upper grades,…

The purpose of this study was to understand how students utilized multiple representations to learn and explain science concepts, in this case the human breathing mechanism. The study was conducted with Grade 11 students in a human biology class. Semistructured interviews and a two-tier diagnostic test were administered to evaluate students'…

"Primärerfahrung" (PE) describes direct contact with learning objects; in biological education with plants or animals in particular. Visualising these objects using videos, books, etc, can be classified as "Sekundärerfahrung" (SE) because the information is not presented in the "original" way. In this intervention…

Laboratory science classes offered to students learning at a distance require a methodology that allows for the completion of tactile activities. Literature describes three different methods of solving the distance laboratory dilemma: kit-based laboratory experience, computer-based laboratory experience, and campus-based laboratory experience,…

We describe the implementation of a specially designed teaching innovation, embedded in the context of energy, for the promotion of specific aspects of the nature of science (NOS). We present empirical results from the implementation of the teaching and learning materials in three intact sixth-grade classes that involved a total of 64 students. We…