Harry Keller is president and a founder of Paracomp, Inc., creator and marketer of Smart Science Education. In this interview, Keller talks about himself and what led him to develop Smart Science labs as an online learning technology. He discusses how schools integrate Smart Science labs into their K-12 science curriculum, the major weaknesses in…

In her new book, bestselling author Cynthia Ballenger explores the intellectual strengths of students that teachers find "puzzling"--poor, urban, immigrant, or bilingual children who do not traditionally excel in school. Ballenger challenges the assumption that these children--whose families in many cases have less formal education, read fewer…

In 2006, the Scottish Executive's Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning Department (SEETLLD) asked HM Inspectorate of Education (HMIE) to carry out a review of the four Scottish science centres--Glasgow Science Centre (GSC), Our Dynamic Earth (ODE) in Edinburgh, Satrosphere Science Centre in Aberdeen, and Sensation Science Centre in Dundee.…

The purpose of this article is to share a learning-cycle sequence of lessons designed to convey the particulate nature of matter through use of physical models and analogical thinking. This activity was adapted from Conceptual Chemistry, a long-running professional development program for teachers of grades 4-9. Conceptual Chemistry's approach is…

The United States has a significant deficit in the number of university students choosing to major in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and subsequently entering STEM professions (National Science Board 2008). One way to address this problem is to find ways to make STEM careers more interesting and intellectually accessible…

In this article, the author shares UK students' experience in a ten-day trip to the Gambia. During the trip, three schools were visited and students taught their lessons in pairs, each pair delivering two 20-minute lessons. Topics covered were chosen beforehand to relate to the Gambian curriculum and the equipment used was selected on a local…

There is a worldwide recognition that one's future health and prosperity will depend on there being a well-educated workforce who can offer a broad range of technical and analytic skills. Many of these important skills are developed through science education. The Careers from Science message is that a scientific background is essential for a wide…

"The Wheel of Scientific Investigation and Reasoning" (Kramer 1987; Paul and Binker 1992) is a graphic representation of the scientific investigative process. The scientific process is depicted in a wheel rather than in a list because "the process of scientific inquiry can begin from any stage, and that stage may be revisited as often as the…

Reader's theater is an activity in which students, while reading directly from scripts, are able to tell a story in its most entertaining form. Typically, teachers create or purchase premade scripts of stories, and students focus on reading those scripts in a fluent and expressive manner. However, in the lesson presented here, students turn the…

This paper provides nine short chemically based puzzles or problems extensible for use with students from middle school to college. Some of these will strengthen students' recognition of individual elements and element names. Others require students to focus on the salient properties of given chemical elements.

The process of coral island formation is often difficult for middle school students to comprehend. Coral island formation is a dynamic process, and students should have the opportunity to experience this process in a synergistic context. The authors provide instructional guidelines for constructing a coral island. Students play an interactive role…

In this paper, we discuss our approach in teaching the final-year course Process Systems Engineering. Students are given ownership of the course by transferring to them the responsibility of learning. A project-based group environment stimulates learning while solving a real engineering problem. We discuss postgraduate student involvement and how…

In this study a particular kind of figurative language, so-called anthropomorphic speech, is analysed in the context of science activities in a preschool setting. Anthropomorphism means speaking about something non-human in human terms. Can any systematic pattern be seen with regard to when such speech is used? Do children and/or teachers…

Classifying a particle requires an understanding of the type of bonding that exists within and among the particles, which requires an understanding of atomic structure and electron configurations, which requires an understanding of the elements of periodic properties, and so on. Rather than getting tangled up in all of these concepts at the start…

Melting temperatures of oligonucleotides are useful for a number of molecular biology applications, such as the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Although melting temperatures are often calculated with simplistic empirical equations, application of thermodynamics provides more accurate melting temperatures and an opportunity for students to apply…