The fluent use of the chemical language is a major tool for successfully passing chemistry courses at school or university as well as for working as a chemist, since chemical formulae are both a descriptive and a heuristic tool. However, numerous studies have revealed remarkable difficulties of students with chemical formulae both at school and at…

Science education studies have revealed that students often have misconceptions about how nature works, but what happens to misconceptions after a conceptual change remains poorly understood. Are misconceptions rejected and replaced by scientific conceptions, or are they still present in students' minds, coexisting with newly acquired…

Previous research has shown that the Swedish preschool educational tradition is characterised by outdoor-oriented and democratic approaches. The purpose of this study is to empirically investigate what consequences these approaches have for preschool children's meaning-making of nature, when studied in practice, in children's spontaneous outdoor…

Engaging communication of complex scientific concepts with the general public requires more than simplification. Compelling, relevant, and timely points of linkage between scientific concepts and the experiences and interests of the general public are needed. Pop-culture icons such as superheroes can represent excellent opportunities for exploring…

An experiment focusing on the creation of phase diagrams involving nonconvalent derivatives of hydroquinone and bis[N,N-diethyl]terephthalamide (HQ-DETPA) is presented. A phase diagram was assembled by taking samples of different compositions (i.e., 40% hydroquinone and 60% bis[N,N-diethyl]terephthalamide, 70%/30%, etc.) and determining the…

Since the invention and dissemination of domestic laser pointers, observing optical phenomena is a relatively easy task. Any student can buy a laser and experience at home, in a qualitative way, the reflection, refraction and even diffraction phenomena of light. However, quantitative experiments need instruments of high precision that have a…

Heart valves play a vital role in efficient circulation of the blood, and the details of their physical structure are related crucially to their function. However, it can be challenging for the learner to make the mental connection between anatomical structures of valves and the changing pressure gradients that the valves experience and come to an…

The question examined in this "Science 101" column was inspired by "Find Your School's Analemma" (in this issue). What causes the Sun's apparent position in the sky to trace a figure-eight pattern throughout one year? The analemma, or figure eight pattern that the Sun makes throughout the year, is due to two major…

3-D topographic surfaces ("topos") can be generated to visualize how pH behaves during titration and dilution procedures. The surfaces are constructed by plotting computed pH values above a composition grid with volume of base added in one direction and overall system dilution on the other. What emerge are surface features that…

This embedded mixed methods study investigates the development of rural elementary students' conceptual understanding of force and motion as a result of the implementation of robotics instruction immersed within a 5E Learning Cycle Model lessons. Three treatment groups and one controlled comparison group (n = 96) participated in pretests and…

This study used video vignettes of historical episodes from documentary films as a context and instructional tool to promote pre-service science teachers' (PSTs) conceptions of the nature of science (NOS). The participants received explicit-reflective NOS instruction, and were introduced to techniques to be able to use scenes from documentary…

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of cooperative learning based on conceptual change approach instruction on ninth-grade students' understanding in chemical bonding concepts compared to traditional instruction. Seventy-two ninth-grade students from two intact chemistry classes taught by the same teacher in a public high…

With the development of new sequencing and bioinformatics technologies, concepts relating to personal genomics play an increasingly important role in our society. To promote interest and understanding of sequencing and bioinformatics in the high school classroom, we developed and implemented a laboratory-based teaching module called "The…

In this research, after extracting the pre-inquiries (student-level question) for which students had curiosity in the elementary science and analyzing their correlation with the elementary science curriculum, highly correlated inquiries (meaningful pre-inquiries) were selected and applied in class. After organizing an experiment group and a…

In this featured lesson, entitled "Fishy Feeding Frenzy," fourth-grade students engage in a classic science activity that requires them to experience the interdependent relationships of organisms in an ecosystem. The students explore how adaptations increase the survival of a member of a species by participating in an active "fishy…