A simple synthesis of fluorescent carbon quantum dots from lemon juice is described to introduce advanced high-school students and undergraduate college students to nanoparticle synthesis and quantum dots. The synthesis is based on the carbonization of lemon juice using only a hot plate stirrer. Column chromatography is used to separate different…

Corpora have given rise to a wide range of lexicographic resources aimed at helping novice users of academic English with their writing. This includes academic vocabulary lists, a variety of textbooks, and even a bespoke academic English dictionary. However, writers may not be familiar with these resources or may not be sufficiently aware of the…

This study investigated ways to foster positive science attitudes among newcomer first-year middle school English learners (n = 79) under two conditions: (1) "Extended Science + Extended Literacy" (planetarium-based visualisations + vocabulary + comic and trade books) and (2) "Extended Science + Literacy" (planetarium-based…

Context: Discovering visual languages across professions is a complex task since it entails discovering a communication system composed of information in image or textual form called representations and also including various kinds of annotations such as notes. Such a task has been previously scarcely considered within research, and basically only…

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and the Framework for K-12 Science Education (NRC, 2012) on which they are based, describe a new vision for science education that includes having students learn science in a way that more closely aligns to how scientists and engineers work and think. Accomplishing this goal will require teacher…

Understanding large-scale patterns in student course enrollment is a problem of great interest to university administrators and educational researchers. Yet important decisions are often made without a good quantitative framework of the process underlying student choices. We propose a probabilistic approach to modelling course enrollment…

General chemistry courses are often the foundation for the study of other science disciplines and upper-level chemistry concepts. Students who take introductory chemistry courses are more often from health and science-related fields than chemistry. As such, the content taught and assessed in general chemistry courses is envisioned as building…

Spatial visualization is a well-established topic of education research that has allowed improving science and engineering students' skills on spatial relations. Connections have been established between visualization as a comprehension tool and instruction in several scientific fields. Learning about dynamic processes mainly relies upon static…

The main objective of this article is to support the notion of regret as a useful tool rather than merely a negative emotion. The article introduces means for using feelings of regret to change past behaviors, increase motivation to reach goals, and minimize future regrets in athletes and teams.

There is growing acknowledgement of the importance of spatial abilities to student achievement across a broad range of domains and disciplines. Nets are one way to connect three-dimensional shapes and their two-dimensional representations and are a common focus of geometry curricula. Thirty-four students at year 6 (upper primary school) were…

Modern evolutionary theory is both a central theory and an integrative framework of the life sciences. This is reflected in the common references to evolution in modern science education curricula and contexts. In fact, evolution is a core idea that is supposed to support biology learning by facilitating the organization of relevant knowledge. In…

It is well known that mechanical engineering students often find mechanics a difficult area to grasp. This article describes a system of equations describing the motion of a balanced and an unbalanced roller constrained by a pivot arm. A wide range of dynamics can be simulated with the model. The equations of motion are embedded in a graphical…

"In many ways, images are the vehicle of comprehension, thought, and action. We integrate parts of images, we remember images, we manipulate images." This quote from James E. Zull clarifies the rationale for a discussion protocol called Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS), in which teachers focus students' attention on an image and ask…

This article presents a teaching proposal that emphasizes on visualization and physical applications in the study of eigenvectors and eigenvalues. More concretely, these concepts were introduced using the notion of the moment of inertia of a rigid body and the GeoGebra software. The proposal was designed after observing architecture students…

The purpose of this study was to investigate kindergartners' geometric (shape, area and symmetry) and spatial (spatial orientation and spatial visualization) thinking skills, in the context of gender and age. Whether kindergartners' geometric and spatial thinking skills vary by their age or gender was questioned. A total of 73 kindergartners (40…