Magicians and scientists have a curious relationship, with both conflicting views and common ground. Magicians use natural means to construct supernatural illusions. They exploit surprise and misdirected focus in their tricks. Scientists like to deconstruct and explain marvels. They methodically measure, evaluate and repeat observations. However,…

An interactive activity to teach the hot Carbon, Nitrogen and Oxygen (HCNO) cycle is proposed. Justification for why the HCNO cycle is important is included via an example of x-ray bursts. The activity allows teaching and demonstration of half-life, nuclear isotopes, nuclear reactions, protons and a-particles, and catalytic processes. Whilst the…

This inquiry-based lesson gets students moving to simulate chemical reactions in a way that allows them to visualize, understand, and retain information about chemical reactions in the stratosphere. Students then look at scientific data and conduct research to understand trends in the data and the impact of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). These…

The Tasks Inspired by Physics Education Research (TIPERS) workbooks pose questions in styles quite different from the end-of-chapter problems that those of us of a certain age were assigned back in the days before Netscape. My own spin on TIPERS is not just to do them on paper, but to have students set up the situations in the laboratory to…

The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) has a huge collection of unique and curious objects from the natural world that have been loaned to us by HM Revenue and Customs after being seized at the UK border. Among the turtle shells and snake skins, the strangest of these is perhaps the freestanding rhino-foot ash tray. This single object can open up…

This paper provides a brief introduction to antimatter and how it, along with other modern physics topics, is utilized in positron emission tomography (PET) scans. It further describes a hands-on activity for students to help them gain an understanding of how PET scans assist in detecting cancer. Modern physics topics provide an exciting way to…

Sarah Bearchell is a science specialist working with primary-aged pupils and their families, with a passion for making science accessible for everyone. In this article she outlines how allowing children ownership of their hands-on activities leads to more engaged learning.

Technology Education as a discipline is at a historical point of two extremes. On one hand it is clear that what we do in technology education is highly valued; after all, imitation is said to be the sincerest form of flattery. The proliferation of "Makermania," technical competitions, engineering design in Next Generation Science…

Like scientists who keep lab notebooks detailing their experiments, inventors keep invention notebooks that chronologically detail the inception, development, and refinement of their inventions. These notebooks are legal documents that can help prove one inventor's precedent over another. Scenarios like these are very real, as the author has had…

Small-scale science activities provide an opportunity for engagement of diverse, large audiences at settings such as 4-H fairs. We present practical information for implementation of small-scale food science experiences in the Extension education context. Our focus is description of a tool for adaptation of activities for inquiry-based learning…

There are already several articles describing ways to teach physics using smartphone apps, but what are some experiments you can perform immediately without downloading any additional software? In the spirit of increasing the amount of hands-on activities each of us is doing, and to give us backup activities when you have a few extra minutes of…

Visitors to public science festivals have a tremendous amount of free choice to decide how to navigate through the festival, as well as when, where, and how long to stop at an exhibit. This study examines how elementary-aged children individually or collaboratively engaged with festival exhibits at a public science festival in St. Petersburg,…

A wide variety of chemical concepts and principles can be taught and demonstrated with LEGO bricks. They are an excellent teaching tool for reinforcing theoretical and abstract chemical concepts and for conveying structure--function relationships. They are ideal for conceptual learning or problem-based learning and a great way of stimulating…

This study investigated some of the aspects that characterise the understanding of the Nature of Science (NOS) and "Nature of Technology" (NOT) of 20 children and youths from different countries who perform scientific and technological activities in a non-formal teaching and learning setting. Data were collected using a questionnaire and…

Magnetism is traditionally taught within the subject of electromagnetism at the undergraduate and graduate levels in physics courses, with the goal of establishing a solid foundation of the underlying physical mechanisms before advancing to more specialized topics. Oftentimes, a laboratory component of these courses involves practical, hands-on…