This paper discusses pedagogical advantages and challenges of using science-fiction movies and television shows in an introductory science class for elementary teachers. The authors describe two instructional episodes in which scenes from the movies "Red Planet" and "The Core" were used to engage students in critiquing science as presented in…

Outreach efforts by faculty members are oftentimes limited in scope due to hectic schedules. We developed a program to enhance science literacy in elementary school children that allows experts to reach a tremendous audience while minimizing their time commitment. The foundation of the program is a television series entitled "Desert Survivors."…

Hands on activities with artisan materials used in order to realize different practical devices helpful in learning process are one of the most frequently used activity in science classes. Usually, the main strength of these activities are: a deeper learning, an increased motivation of pupils for actively learning and development of practical…

Aim of the study is to assess the project works and application processes in science education of 6th, 7th and 8th grades in primary education upon teachers' perspectives. The research was fulfilled upon the descriptive survey model to collect data. Participants of the research were 90 teachers, having project management experience in science…

The community can be a powerful context and mini-laboratory for cultivating students' common understandings of science and mathematics. On the island of Panay in the Philippines, the community was the starting place for a group of fifth- and sixth-grade students to explore simple machines in their daily lives. What students learned in the process…

This study reports an adaptive digital learning project, scientific concept construction and reconstruction (SCCR), that was developed based on the theories of Dual Situated Learning Model (DSLM) and scientific reasoning. In addition, the authors investigated the effects of an SCCR related to a "combustion" topic for sixth grade students…

This study discusses preservice elementary science teachers' (PSTs) epistemological beliefs and the relationships among their epistemological beliefs, epistemological world views, and self-efficacy beliefs. Four hundred and twenty-nine PSTs who were enrolled in five large universities completed the Schommer Epistemological Questionnaire (SEQ), the…

The present study investigates the effects of multimedia and schema induced analogical reasoning on science learning. It involves 89 fourth grade elementary students in the north-east of the United States. Participants are randomly assigned into four conditions: (a) multimedia with analogy; (b) multimedia without analogy; (c) analogy without…

In this project, introductory college physics students (noneducation majors) were asked to teach simple machines to a class of second graders. This nontraditional activity proved to be a successful way to encourage college students to think critically about physics and how it applied to their everyday lives. The noneducation majors benefited by…

This study aims to add to the growing research related to the implementation of non-traditional writing tasks in classrooms to encourage science literacy. A secondary reanalysis methodology was employed to review student interviews collected as a part of several individual studies during a ten year research program. This method established an…

Pre-adolescent children are generally characterized as incapable of applying scientific reasoning to test a causal relation. This paper describes research on children's scientific reasoning which shows that pre-adolescent children do have some systematic scientific reasoning skills. The subjects of this study were 260 second through fourth grade…

Describes modifying a slide projector into a macro-projector to show objects too small for an overhead projector and too big for a micro-projector. Describes a box to produce multiple images of objects. (BR)

Describes how beekeeping became a class project and the educational benefits of the project. Also describes how to prepare a group to maintain its own hive and suggests resource materials. (BR)

Presents directions for an activity designed to illustrate the function of plant nutrients. (PEB)