In this article we portray our personal journeys in a cross-cultural context resulting in professional growth. Data are presented in the form of constructed dialogues, and are reflected upon using the theories of transformative learning and intercultural competency. The role of lesson study as a vehicle for our journeys is examined. Reflection on…

The European Association for Astronomy Education (EAAE), in collaboration with the Bibliotheca Alexandrina of Egypt and the participation of schools from all around the world, performed the Eratosthenes experiment on 21 June 2010. This activity has been selected as one of the finalists in the 11th international prize organized by Ciencia en…

To date, research involving homemade PowerPoint games as an instructional tool has not shown statistically significant gains in student performance. This paper examines the results of a study comparing the performance of students in a high school chemistry course who created homemade PowerPoint games as a test review with the students who used a…

Conceptual change instruction recognizes that students bring personal, or naive, conceptions to the classroom, which they use to explain their world, interpret situations, and create meaning (Driver et al. 2007). But what happens when students' personal conceptions are inconsistent with experts' views of scientific knowledge? Even after direct…

This document presents the proceedings of the 19th Annual Research Forum held June 26, 2014, at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Included are the following 17 action research papers: (1) Using Voices to Change Minds: Oral Performance and Poetry in the English Classroom (Erika Bunpermkoon), (2) Imagining Audiences: The Use…

In the "Third Day" of the "Discourses and Mathematical Demonstrations Concerning Two New Sciences" Galileo Galilei describes the famous experiment of the inclined plane and uses it to bring an experimental confirmation to the laws of uniformly accelerated motion. We describe a reconstruction of the experiment and how the results can be used for…

We have developed an experimental activity that introduces concepts of the natural ionizing radiation and its interaction with our contemporary environment that can be used with students from secondary to college level. The experiment is based on the use of traditional and cheap portable Geiger-Muller detectors as survey meters for "in situ"…

The authors describe a Modeling Instruction program that places an emphasis on the construction and application of conceptual models of physical phenomena as a central aspect of learning and doing science. (Contains 1 table.)

What can glaciers tell us about volcanoes and atmospheric conditions? How does this information relate to our understanding of climate change? Ice Core Investigations is an original and innovative activity that explores these types of questions. It brings together popular science issues such as research, climate change, ice core drilling, and air…

Coach is an activity-based, open computer environment for learning and doing mathematics, science, and technology in an inquiry approach, developed in the last twenty-five years at the AMSTEL Institute of the University of Amsterdam. It offers a versatile set of integrated tools for data collection, data analysis, modelling and simulation, and for…

Presenting both traditional and innovative assessment methods integral to science teaching and learning, this book shows teachers the connection between effective science assessment and improved student learning. The text uses a competence-based approach consistent with the National Science Education Standards to help teachers master assessment…

This paper investigates physics teacher class planning and its consequences during implementation in class mainly focusing the contradictions emerged among teacher's and students' expectations of the class. This situation is analysed from a socio-cultural-historical point of view mainly supported by Activity Theory. We highlight the components of…

"Slowmation" (abbreviated from "Slow Animation") is a simplified way of making an animation that enables students to create their own as a new way of learning about a science concept. When students make a slowmation, they create a sequence of five multimodal representations (the 5 Rs) with each one contributing to the learning…

In this article, the authors provide an overview and critically analyze three successful faculty-developed urban K-12 science outreach programs. They consider a successful outreach program as one that has been sustained for at least five years after initial funding, and has provided empirically-based research findings from the program.…

In this paper, we are concerned with the role of both teachers and students' questioning in classroom interaction. Bearing in mind that the current guidelines point out to student centred teaching, our aim is to analyse and characterise the questioning patterns of contemporary secondary science classes and compare them to the questioning profiles…