Arguing from evidence is one of eight key science practices in which students should engage. It is an essential component of science, yet students have difficulties with this practice. We describe a scaffolded claims-evidence-reasoning (CER) argumentation framework that is embedded within a new eight-week, freely available curriculum unit…

"Instructional Sequence Matters, Grades 9-12" is the one-stop resource that will inspire you to reimagine your approach to high school physical science. The book discusses the 5E (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate) as a specific pathway for teaching and learning. It also shows how simple shifts in the way you arrange and…

Large numbers of U.S. students lack proficiency in science, and students from different racial/ethnic and socioeconomic groups show disparities in science achievement. Science knowledge and skills are important for both academic and workplace success, and a variety of interventions have been developed to improve student achievement in science.…

"Multimodal Signs of Learning" proposes a methodology to uncover evidence of learning in students' multimodal compositions. Informed by social semiotic theory, the book tracks representation of subject content from physical and embodied teaching resources to students' handmade artefacts and physical presentations. Using materials from…

In this research article we explore the efficacy of a game-based learning approach to improve students understanding of the fundamental concepts of physics such as, heat and temperature. Heat and temperature are complex to learn by traditional learning methods. Students face complexities in learning such concepts of Physics. These complexities…

Innovations in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) are a cornerstone of the United States' economic prosperity, yet national and international assessments paint a poor picture of students' STEM competencies (reference 1; reference 2). These data have led to transformative approaches to improve STEM education including…

The use and understanding of mathematics is a crucial component of the physical sciences. Much work has been done in physics education research and science education more broadly to determine persistent difficulties with mathematics. This work has led to the development of numerous problem solving strategies aimed at helping learners approach…

Elementary teachers often integrate science-themed trade books into their science and reading lessons. This study examines the alignment of science-themed trade books written for readers in Kindergarten through fifth-grade to the Next Generation Science Standards Disciplinary Core Ideas (NGSS DCI). The goal of this research is to analyze the…

The current study aims to investigate whether the instructional approach (flipped or traditional) and gender (male or female) influence students' sense of autonomy, relatedness, and competence, or influence their achievements in high school chemistry. Merrill's First Principles of Instruction theory was used to design the flipped classroom (FC)…

Every time I have to jack up my car, I am a bit surprised by how slowly the scissors jack works the higher I raise it, and close to maximum height I need very little force to turn the crank. This agrees well with the principle of simple machines. Since I have to jack up my car at least twice a year to change between winter tires and summer tires,…

Charles Wheatstone's name was once familiar to students because they used his eponymous bridge to measure resistances. That usage seems to be disappearing--we all have access to digital ohmmeters--but the techniques that he developed for making electrical measurements can still be used with profit. Also, his work with measuring very short time…

After many years of confusion, thermal performance of sleeping bags has now been quantified and unified using expensive test techniques. Based on Newton's law of cooling, we present a simple inexpensive test and model to check manufacturers' claims on the temperature performance of a range of modern sleeping bags.

A spectrogram of a singer's vibrato presents a striking way to introduce students to frequency, Fourier spectra, and modulation. Vibrato is discussed from the perspectives of the physicist and the musician. A dramatic spectrogram is included where coauthor soprano Michel suppresses her vibrato so that acoustical characteristics can be compared to…

Although students take courses in transport phenomena and thermodynamics, they probably do not ask whether these two subjects are related. Here we give an answer to that question. Specifically we give relationships between the equations of change for total energy, internal energy, and entropy of transport phenomena and key equations of equilibrium…

The proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border would significantly affect wildlife. Most animals cannot get past walls that are hundreds of miles long and many meters tall. Some species along parts of the border where a wall already exists, such as jaguars and ocelots, suffer from dwindling populations and difficulty finding mates. This column…