Electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) is a powerful technique for the detection, identification, and quantification of organic compounds. As mass spectrometers have become more user-friendly and affordable, many students--often with little experience in mass spectrometry--find themselves needing to incorporate mass spectrometry into…

Bugs, slugs, bacteria, and fungi are decomposers at the heart of every ecosystem. Fifth graders at Dodge Intermediate School in Twinsburg, Ohio, ventured outdoors to learn about the necessity of these amazing organisms. With the help of a naturalist, students explored their local park and discovered the wonder of decomposers and their…

Many science education researchers have argued that learners' commitment to a substance (matter-based) ontology impedes the learning of scientific concepts that scientists typically conceptualize as processes or interactions, such as force, electric current, and heat. By this account, students' tendency to classify these entities as…

The familiar system involving a uniform ladder sliding against a vertical wall and a horizontal floor is considered again. The floor is taken to be smooth and the wall to be possibly rough--a situation where no matter how large the static friction coefficient between the ladder and the wall, the ladder cannot lean at rest and must slide down.…

The slow flow of a viscous liquid is a thought-provoking experiment that challenges students, academics and the public to think about some fundamental questions in modern science. In the Queensland demonstration--the world's longest-running experiment, which has earned the Ig Nobel prize--one drop of pitch takes about ten years to fall, leading to…

In this computational experiment, students use advanced quantum chemistry tools to simulate the photochromic reaction mechanism in naphthopyran derivatives. The first part aims to make students familiar with excited-state reaction mechanisms and addresses the photoisomerization of the benzopyran molecule by means of semiempirical quantum chemical…

Textbooks are required in most introductory college science courses, but students may not be benefitting from the textbooks as much as their instructors might hope. Word use in the textbooks may influence textbook effectiveness. I tested whether either the amount of technical vocabulary or the readability had a significant effect on students'…

Imagination is a powerful engine that can drive people to bring their ideas, dreams, and desires to reality. The imagination constructs stories that lead people to create. Combining imagination with engineering knowledge creates inventions which initially might seem fantastic. The authors provide in this article a brief overview of a successful…

Reaction kinetics is an axiomatic topic in chemistry that is often addressed as early as the high school course and serves as the foundation for more sophisticated conversations in college-level organic, physical, and biological chemistry courses. Despite the fundamental nature of reaction kinetics, students can struggle with transforming their…

The aim of this paper is to investigate in a systematic and comparative way previous results of independent studies on the treatment of genes and gene function in high school textbooks from six different countries. We analyze how the conceptual variation within the scientific domain of Genetics regarding gene function models and gene concepts is…

This paper addresses the nature and significance of productive engagement in cognitive activity and metacognitive regulation in collaborative learning tasks that involve complex scientific knowledge. A situative framework, combining the constructs of social regulation and content processing, provided the theoretical basis for the development of a…

This paper offers a synthesis of research evidence around teaching light to primary and secondary school pupils as part of the Institute of Physics Promoting and Interpreting Physics Education Research (PIPER) project. Conceptual change literature describes many of the difficulties young people can have understanding the phenomenon of light, and…

A logical question to be expected from students: "How could life develop, that is, change, evolve from simple, primitive organisms into the complex forms existing today, while at the same time there is a generally observed decline and disorganization--the second law of thermodynamics?" The explanations in biology textbooks relied upon by…

The article describes the process of developing and implementing a STEM Summer Camp that allowed Preschoolers to experiment and investigate with materials while learning basic concepts of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) through play as part of the educational process. The participants were presented with problems that they…

This article details a study that investigated 55 elementary pre-service teachers' content knowledge about density. Using a mixed-methods approach, pre/post face-to-face interviews and pre/post concepts maps (Cmaps) were used as data to document changes in teacher knowledge which occurred over a 15-week science methods course. Thematic analysis…