This article describes how Cahokia middle and high school students conduct inquiry-based science through a pitfall trap experiment. In a collaborative effort, students designed and conducted pitfall trap investigations that combined their interest in the natural world with their love of technology. The students set up their own experiments to…

The discussion board feature that is included with most course management software packages is a potentially valuable tool to augment instructor-student interactions in science lecture courses and increase student motivation. However, many teachers seem to have been frustrated that students do not readily make use of this feature when it is added…

This investigation seeks to confirm a computer-based approach that can be used to score concept maps (Poindexter & Clariana, 2004) and then describes the concurrent criterion-related validity of these scores. Participants enrolled in two graduate courses (n=24) were asked to read about and research online the structure and function of the heart…

The science education community has been challenged to develop curricula that offer science educators and students a variety of experiences that highlight the advances of technologies. Although many approaches have been suggested for using technologies in school, there has been little research on its use as a tool with middle school students.…

To successfully generate student excitement in science, teachers need to be flexible regarding their curriculums. Students also need to be open to novel, hands-on experiences. This article describes a student teacher (ST) who taught a science unit on "Our Environment." She had already prepared her lesson and unit thoroughly but she changed the…

Science requires active learning--it is something that children do, rather than something that is done to them. The learning process involves students' thinking and doing to develop higher-order thinking skills, strengthen their reading and mathematical skills, and attain scientific knowledge. In the elementary grades, children learn biological…

This paper describes the development of a new university physics course designed to integrate physics, education, research, and community partnerships. The coordinated system of activities links the new course to local community efforts in pre-college education, university education, university outreach, and research on teaching and learning. As…

This article reports the validity and use of a new form of the Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES). As part of a larger study, a comparative student version (CLES-CS) was developed to evaluate the impact of an innovative teacher development program (based on the Integrated Science Learning Environment, ISLE, model) in school…

We developed a hybrid course format (part online, part face-to-face) to deliver a high-enrollment, introductory environmental biology course to resident (living on or near campus), non-science majors at a large, public university. The hybrid course was structured to include bi-weekly online assignments and weekly meetings in the lecture hall…

This study examines Finnish and English primary student teachers' ideas when planning to teach a physics topic during their science education studies. Many primary student teachers lack sufficient subject knowledge, which prevents them from constructing the scientific pedagogical content knowledge that enables them to concentrate on pupils'…

This study investigated the possible impact of a science teaching methods course on pre-service teachers' self-efficacy and perceptions of self as science teachers. The study also investigated the probable relationship between these two variables, which both measure issues related to the expected behaviour teachers adopt when teaching science.…

An experimental study was designed to study the effectiveness of Problem Based Learning (PBL) in the context of higher education in an urban-city university in Lima, Peru. In the fall semester of 2004, eleven sections of Chemistry 1 were offered to first year students in the College of Science at this University. In six of these eleven sections…

There is much information from educational psychology studies on how people learn. The thesis of this paper is that we should use this information to guide the ways in which we teach rather than blindly using our traditional methods. In this context, problem-based learning (PBL), as a method of teaching widely used in medical schools but…

This article reports on research into learning gains made by children aged 10-12 when they studied astronomy using learning activities in a constructivist environment consolidated by access through the Internet to a scientific-grade telescope. Young people often hold naive or alternative ideas about scientific phenomena from early childhood. Since…

This article summarises the main uses and affordances (the perceived qualities of systems that can support or hinder interactions: Greeno & MMAP, 1998) of interactive technologies commonly used in school science. Its main emphasis, however, is on eliciting and documenting the emerging strategies that teachers are developing for exploiting the new…