Rivers are important surficial geologic processes that shape Earth's landscape. Students' conceptions of river features and processes serve as a foundation for their learning of new river concepts. Despite the importance of rivers and students' conceptions of them, little research has focused on identifying students' river conceptions. This study…

Macroscopic objects, although quantum mechanical by nature, conform to Newtonian mechanics under normal observation. According to the quantum mechanical correspondence principle, quantum behavior is indistinguishable from classical behavior in the limit of very large quantum numbers. The purpose of this paper is to provide an example of the…

The physics and chemistry education literature has grappled with an appropriate definition for the concept of heat for the past four decades. Most of the literature promotes the view that heat is "energy in transit" or "involves the transfer of energy" between the system and surroundings because of a difference in temperature. Given that many…

Google Earth is an exciting way to engage students in scientific inquiry--the foundation of science education standards and reforms. The National Science Education Standards identify inquiry as an active process that incorporates questioning, gathering and analyzing data, and thinking critically about the interplay of evidence and explanations.…

The global scientific and policy community now unequivocally accepts that human activities cause global climate change. Although information on climate change is readily available, the nation still seems unprepared or unwilling to respond effectively to climate change, due partly to a general lack of public understanding of climate change issues…

Students are exposed to many different media reports about global climate change. Movies such as "The Day After Tomorrow" and "Ice Age" are examples of instances when movie producers have sought to capture the attention of audiences by augmenting the challenges that climate change poses. Students may receive information from a wide range of media…

The rock cycle is a key component of geoscience education at all levels. In this paper, we report on a new guided inquiry curricular module, "Sleuthing through the Rock Cycle," which has a blended online/offline constructivist design with comprehensive teaching notes and has been successful in pilot use in Rhode Island middle and high…

Our study explores how students apply geoscientific knowledge learned in the classroom to phenomena in a field setting. This was investigated by collecting video data from an ordinary high school context in Norway involving one teacher and a class of 17 high school students. We analyzed how the students learned rock identification and relative…

Field trips are wonderful opportunities to expand student learning, but the bus rides can be challenging. Perched in the first row, teachers attempt to guide the driver while tossing repeated reminders of safe bus behavior to the students in back, inevitably arriving at the destination flustered and possibly nauseated. In this article the author…

In a standards-based system, it is important for all components of the system to align in order to achieve the intended goals. No Child Left Behind law mandates that assessments be fully aligned with state standards, be valid, reliable and fair, be reported to all stakeholders, and provide evidence that all students in the state are meeting the…

The incorporation of reformed, inquiry-based pedagogies in introductory courses has been shown to improve content knowledge, student retention, interest and attitudes towards science. However, there is evidence that suggests these techniques are not being widely used by the geoscience community. This research focuses on the incorporation of…

GLOBE is a global educational program for elementary and high school levels, and its main purpose in Costa Rica is to develop scientific thinking and interest for science in high school students through hydrology research projects that allow them to relate science with environmental issues in their communities. Youth between 12 and 17 years old…

This study aims to better understand questions related to the impact of teacher quality and access to qualified teachers in China. A large-scale data set collected in 2010 in China was used along with concurrently collected teacher questionnaires. In total, surveys from 9,943 8th grade students from 343 middle schools in 6 provinces were used,…

Relationships between sixth grade students' moon journaling and students' spatial-scientific reasoning after implementation of an Earth/Space unit were examined. Teachers used the project-based Realistic Explorations in Astronomical Learning curriculum. We used a regression model to analyze the relationship between the students' Lunar Phases…

Learning science vocabulary is an often tedious but important component of many curricula. Frequently, students are expected to learn science vocabulary indirectly, but this method can hinder the success of lower-performing students (Carlisle, Fleming, and Gudbrandsen 2000). We have developed an inquiry-based vocabulary activity wherein students…