Service teaching, through which core courses or modules are provided by a department other than the one administering the degree, occurs in universities worldwide, but there have been many reports of student dissatisfaction with their service-taught courses. The experiences of service teachers have received little attention and may help to suggest…

For some time now, images in science have been an object of study in the history of science. The multiple roles that images play in scientific practice have been recognised and discussed. However, little attention has been given to science related images in educational contexts. The case of geology is all the more relevant because it is considered…

This technology report outlines the design and construction of a simple Arduino-based pH sensor using universal pH paper; it can be assembled for less than $40 and is ideal for use in laboratory classrooms teaching students with visual disabilities. The device is simple to construct and suitable for adoption in school chemistry laboratories…

Connecting the thermodynamic definition of entropy, dS = dQ/T (Clausius's equation), with the statistical definition, S = k[subscript B] ln [omega] (Boltzmann's equation), has been a persistent challenge in chemical education at the undergraduate level. Not meeting this challenge results in students taking away the meaning of entropy in a vague…

The first purpose of this study was to introduce a laboratory modelling activity focusing on teaching the concepts of radioactive elements/atoms, radioactive decay, and half-life. The second was to investigate pre-service chemistry teachers' understanding of these concepts. Fifteen pre-service chemistry teachers who had enrolled in a Physical…

Foundation Year children are often excited about learning to read. Some 5- to 6-year-olds with well-developed literacy skills begin to read chapter books. Like older children and adults, they cannot read the whole book in one sitting. The learning experience described in the article provides an example of how the properties of materials…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of inquiry-based experiments on pre-service science teachers' science process skills. The study group consisted of 60 pre-service teachers in total, enrolled in the undergraduate program of Science Teacher Education, Faculty of Education at a state university. The study which used randomized…

The photoelectric effect is one of the key experiments taught during first- or second-year university and high school modern physics courses. It is usually the first experiment to introduce light quantization and the concept of photons as "packets of energy." Here, we want to point out a widespread mistake concerning the interpretation…

The purpose of the study was to reveal the effects of scientific argumentation-oriented teaching activities on the environmental attitudes and knowledge of seventh-grade Turkish students within the human and environment unit compared to the activities suggested by the ministry of education science and technology curriculum. This study employed a…

The purpose of this paper is to present five new devices that demonstrate a variety of flow phenomena in liquids and granular materials that exhibit fluid-like behavior. These devices complement and add on to a recent collection of demonstrations that was published in this journal. The devices are self-contained and portable, and can be utilized…

Systems thinking encompasses a set of skills for understanding, analyzing, and working with systems consisting of multiple interconnected elements and exhibiting emergent properties. Such systems are all around us, and helping students to develop such skills is central to equipping them to tackle professional and societal challenges. While the…

A laboratory experiment was developed to introduce students to waste valorization. This is the process of reusing, recycling, or composting from wastes, useful products, or sources of energy. In this laboratory experiment, waste valorization is demonstrated through transforming waste orange peel (WOP) into a marmalade-type gel by extracting a…

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are an explicit document that articulates our pedagogical practices in K-12 science instruction for the United States. The document is an excellent work that describes pedagogy and road maps for building coherence of science principles and student understanding of the Nature of Science. The prescient…

Research on science teaching and learning commonly makes use of reductionism to specify conditions of science learning. In my studies of academics'-of-science-teaching-&-learning (academics'"-of-st&l") research practices and values, I discuss how philosophic inquiry shifted my research practices from reductionism to critical (or,…

Computation is a central aspect of 21st century physics practice; it is used to model complicated systems, to simulate impossible experiments, and to analyze mountains of data. Physics departments and their faculty are increasingly recognizing the importance of teaching computation to their students. We recently completed a national survey of…