Students whose high school biology course included evolution but not creationism knew more about evolution when they entered college than did students whose courses included evolution plus creationism or whose courses included neither evolution nor creationism. Similarly, students who believed that their high school biology classes were the…

Podcasting is a term introduced through the use of Apple Computer, Inc.'s iPod, a term which denotes how a portable audio player can be used to download audio files, mostly MP3s, and be heard at the user's convenience. Initially such an operation was intended for entertainment; however, it has proven itself to be an important tool in the field of…

Critical thinking is considered to be an important outcome that all students, regardless of their academic major, need to achieve during their undergraduate study. In addition, critical thinking allows students to respond to less-well defined problems and thus to be better prepared for both personal and professional challenges. Taking into…

A series of aspects regarding the aria of teaching sciences (chemistry, biology, physics, geography) in pre-universitary learning is presented. This paper underlines the importance of prerepresentations of students in teaching-learning process in pre-universitary learning, assuring in this way a desirable direction of the reform in…

The paper reports on some of the findings of an extensive study undertaken in Victoria as part of a national Science, ICT and Mathematics Education in Rural and Regional Australia (SiMERR) project. One of the significant findings of the study was the extent to which teachers in the schools where the study data were collected took responsibility…

A qualitative case study was conducted to investigate the understanding of the limiting reagent concept and the strategies used by five Year 11 students when solving four reaction stoichiometry problems. Students' written problem-solving strategies were studied using the think-aloud protocol during problem-solving, and retrospective verbalisations…

We report in this paper on a study of chemistry teachers' perceptions of their teaching in upper secondary schools in Sweden, regarding models of acids and bases, especially the Bronsted and the Arrhenius model. A questionnaire consisting of a Likert-type scale was developed, which focused on teachers' knowledge of different models, knowledge of…

In introductory chemistry courses students are presented with the model that matter is composed of particles, and that weak forces of attraction exist between them. This model is used to interpret phenomena such as solubility and melting points, and aids in understanding the changes in states of matter as opposed to chemical reactions. We…

Inquiries into the state of mathematics and science education in Australia express the need to make curriculum and teaching practices more relevant and meaningful to students' lives. This vision requires that teachers understand how relevance can enter the classroom in meaningful, appropriate, and subject-specific ways. In this paper I use…

This article discusses House Bill 280 as a response to the state of Georgia's drastic need to recruit and produce highly qualified mathematics teachers. The bill attempts to address the shortage of fully certified secondary mathematics and science teachers by offering additional compensation to aide recruitment. The bill also provides incentives…

No other food industry depends so heavily on a wild caught resource than those associated with aquatic food products. Domestication of fish, shellfish, and other aquatic resources production has lagged behind other terrestrial livestock products; however, demand for these aquatic natural resources has continued to increase dramatically. Teaching…

The results presented here derive from a longitudinal study of Swedish upper secondary science students' (16-19 years of age) developing understanding of key chemical concepts. The informants were 18 students from two different schools. The aim of the present study was to investigate the mental models of matter at the particulate level that…

The main objective of this study is to identify the development of students' self-reported use of metacognitive learning strategies during high school. Therefore, the study analyses the differential development patterns of 1,432 students, between grade 10 and 12, in a longitudinal sample. The results suggest that, from a global perspective, there…

In this article we describe one application of the fast feedback method (see Berg 2003 "Aust. Sci. Teach. J." 28-34) in secondary mechanics education. Two teachers tried out a particular sequence twice, in consecutive years, once with and once without the use of fast feedback. We found the method to be successful, and the data that we obtained…

For many students, the conceptual learning of quantum mechanics can be rather painful owing to the counter-intuitive nature of quantum phenomena. In order to enhance students' understanding of the odd behaviour of photons and electrons, we introduce a computational simulation of the Mach-Zehnder interferometer, developed by our research group. An…