'Best Evidence Science Teaching' (BEST) is a collection of open-access, research-evidence-informed resources for science teaching at 11-14. BEST includes progression toolkits comprising sequenced learning steps, diagnostic questions and response activities. Case studies illustrate how teachers are using BEST resources. Observations and interview…

In this study, we explore how cross-linguistic differences can contribute to children's scientific thinking. We compared first and third grade Chinese students' pre-instructional ideas of the earth expressed in clinical interviews with that of their English-speaking and Greek-speaking counterparts (as recorded in the literature). Inspired by a…

Evaluation is an important aspect of science and is receiving increasing attention in science education. The present study investigated (1) changes to plausibility judgments and knowledge as a result of a series of instructional scaffolds, called model-evidence link activities, that facilitated evaluation of scientific and alternative models in…

While on a vacation flight from Hawaii to California, I observed sunset occurring on clouds far below. The view triggered a vague memory about a fun article 1 published more than three decades earlier on the topic of "Doubling Your Sunsets." Simple observations from my flight made it possible to compute the Earth's radius.

The idea of building sand castles evokes images of lazy summer days at the beach, listening to waves crash, enjoying salty breezes, and just unplugging for a while to let our inner child explore the wonderful natural toys beneath our feet. The idea of exploring caves might evoke feelings and images of claustrophobia or pioneers and Native…

This study reports on a case study-based curricular intervention designed to help undergraduate engineering students make connections between geoscience and its applications. Teaching through case studies resulted in a measurable and significant improvement in the confidence that students had in their ability to apply geoscience concepts in an…

Concept inventories have been determined to be useful assessment tools for evaluating students' knowledge, particularly in the sciences. However, these assessment tools must be validated to reflect as accurately as possible students' understanding of concepts. One possible threat to this validation is what previous literature calls the item order…

For decades, programs targeting the recruitment and retention of underrepresented minorities (URM) have had local success in broadening participation in the geosciences. Meanwhile, national graduation rates of URM geoscience majors fall below the national graduation rates of URM STEM majors, generally. In this literature review, we summarize…

Focus of this article is the current situation characterized by students' de-rootedness and possible measures to improve the situation within the frame of education for sustainable development. My main line of argument is that science teachers can practice teaching in such a way that students are brought in deeper contact to the environment. I…

Student mastery of the academic vocabulary of course content is an important component of learning that content. This research study investigated the combination of two active multimedia strategies within 10 different high school science classrooms, to test for retention of science terminology. The dual process of learner-generated drawings…

Virtual globe programs such as Google Earth replicate real-world experiential learning of spatial and geographic concepts by allowing students to navigate across our planet without ever leaving campus. However, empirical evidence for the learning value of these technological tools and the experience students gain by exploration assignments framed…

The Opportunities for Enhancing Diversity in the Geosciences (OEDG) program, operational between the years 2001 and 2013, was a signature effort by the National Science Foundation's Directorate for Geosciences (NSF/GEO) to invest in broadening participation of historically underrepresented populations in geoscience education programs and careers.…

Two cases of context-sensitive mobile computing curricula for children are shown to develop analytical understandings of how science-related sense-making talk can be supported through physical and digital environment interaction, which supports play and learning through movement. Our work investigates how proximity-based computing mediates…

This paper describes HASbot, an automated text scoring and real-time feedback system designed to support student revision of scientific arguments. Students submit open-ended text responses to explain how their data support claims and how the limitations of their data affect the uncertainty of their explanations. HASbot automatically scores these…

Recent science-education reforms have targeted students' ability to 'talk science', especially in science classrooms. Prior research has shown that participation in scientific discourse in class is one of the most challenging scientific-literacy tasks, and particularly complex for English language learners (ELLs) at the upper elementary level. The…