In our upper-level undergraduate laboratory course in organic chemistry we focus on a research-oriented task in a context-based and problem-based learning approach. The course starts with a preliminary training period where the students learn how to safely and independently perform synthesis and purification procedures and to operate the most…

A guided-inquiry project designed to teach students the basics of spectrophotometric instrumentation at the second year level is presented. Students design, build, program, and test their own single-wavelength, submersible photometer using low-cost light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and inexpensive household items. A series of structured prelaboratory…

We developed and implemented a series of workshops and seminars in an undergraduate journal club targeted at improving student development in applying the scientific process. Students were surveyed before and after participating in the club about their confidence in accessing, analyzing, and reporting scientific research. Post-club, the students…

Mental modeling, which is a theory about knowledge organization, has been recently studied by science educators to examine students' understanding of scientific concepts. This qualitative study investigates undergraduate students' mental models of atomic spectra. Nine second-year physics students, who have already taken the basic chemistry and…

A simple and straightforward synthesis of an ultrastable porous metal-organic framework (MOF) based on copper(II) and a mixed N donor ligand system is described as a laboratory experiment for chemistry undergraduate students. These experiments and the resulting analysis are designed to teach students basic research tools and procedures while…

Textbooks are a prominent part of science teaching and learning. For science teachers and students, textbooks are the major source of information for planning and classroom practice. In addition to the content of textbooks, are end-of-chapter questions that should consolidate students learning and enhance their thinking processes. Therefore, this…

Employers are increasingly requiring a range of "soft" skills from chemistry graduates, including the ability to search for and critically evaluate information. This paper discusses the issues around encouraging chemistry students to engage with information skills and suggests curricular changes which may help to "drip-feed"…

One of the most important objectives of the science curricula is to bring in science process skills. The science process skills are skills that lie under scientific thinking and decision-making. Thus it is important for a science curricula to be rationalized in such a way that it brings in science process skills. New science curricula were…

We present our design for a cell biology course to integrate content with scientific practices, specifically data interpretation and model-based reasoning. A 2-year research project within this course allowed us to understand how students interpret authentic biological data in this setting. Through analysis of written work, we measured the extent…

Many children and adults have problems differentiating between heat and temperature. As a consequence, intuitive notions developed about the transfer of heat and other thermal concepts do not align with scientific explanations of the phenomena. These notions are formed as alternative conceptions, which are resistant to change and persist as…

With rapidly evolving technology, the world is more connected than ever, and citizens around the globe can contribute to science like never before (Dickinson and Bonney 2012). Reflecting the growing capacity of citizen science, this article presents a science education continuum that moves from global awareness to global contribution. At each…

Planning for and teaching somebody else's class can be a daunting process, especially for a trainee teacher like the author, who still has to gain all the knowledge and experience of managing a group of 36 10- and 11-year-olds. As part of her degree studies, the author had to plan, with a group of other trainee teachers, a series of lessons on…

Drawing on a sociocultural perspective on educational assessment the empirical examples of Margareta Serder and Anders Jakobsson serve as a starting point for a critical analysis of PISA and the image of science education it perpetuates. While PISA claims to neutrally measure competencies relevant to science education, I argue that the test…

Student engagement during the development of a three-dimensional visual aid or teaching model can vary for a number of reasons. Some students report that they are not "creative" or "good at art," often as an excuse to justify less professional outcomes. Student engagement can be low when using traditional methods to produce a…

The aim of this research is to reveal the levels of understanding of student science teachers regarding the digestive system. In this research, 116 student science teachers were tested by applying the drawing method. Upon the analysis of the drawings they made, it was found that some of them had misconceptions such as "the organs of the…