Early scientific thinking in kindergarten (6-year-olds) was investigated in a large study involving 227 participants. We investigated (1) whether individual differences across 3 scientific-thinking components (experimentation, data interpretation, and understanding the nature of science) are stable across children, (2) whether children's increased…

Will spring be early next year? This is a question the authors ponder each fall as they prepare for a yearlong citizen science project with kindergartners. Citizen science projects naturally promote the development of science and engineering practices. These projects can be integrated at any grade level and aligned to meet other content areas as…

The goal of our study was to examine a large (>400), cross-sectional sample of Chinese pre-service biology teachers (PBTs) in order to document their evolution acceptance levels, evolution knowledge, and evolutionary reasoning patterns. This approach was taken in order to better understand the degree to which particular evolutionary reasoning…

This study is based on the low attention of teachers on students' potential compared to academic ability. Teachers' focus on academic ability as the sole determinant of successful learning causes learning to be incapable of developing the students' potential called Multiple Intelligences (MI), whereas they can be applied to make students enjoy…

Developing scientific literacy about water systems is critical for K-12 students. However, even with opportunities to build knowledge about the hydrosphere in elementary classrooms, early learners may struggle to understand the water cycle (Forbes et al., [Forbes, C. T., 2015]; Gunckel et al., [Gunckel, K. L., 2012]; Zangori et al., [Forbes, C.…

National and international standards documents are calling for science teachers to teach their students how to engage in the practices of science. Previous studies have found that most science teachers do not have the knowledge and skill to do this because they have not had experience engaging authentically in science. One way to overcome this…

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of STEM-based activities conducted in fourth-grade primary school science classes on students' scientific process skills, problem-solving skills and academic success. The study used the experimental model and was carried out according to the pretest-posttest experimental design with a control group.…

Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is a constructivist learning with the potential to enhance students' science process skill. The implementation of PBL has revealed many advantages, however, a free exploration from a highly complex environment may result in a heavier workload of memory. Accordingly, practicum method can be used to overcome the…

'Wow' is a teaching tool. It is not just a way to grab attention but, correctly used, a means to enhance children's understanding and improve retention. Wow leads to why. In this why state pupils experience the 'vacuum of ignorance': they know they don't know, they know that the teacher does know (usually) and they want the teacher to fill that…

The Next Generation Science Standards [1] expect students to master disciplinary core ideas, crosscutting concepts, and scientific practice. In prior work, we showed that students benefited from real time scaffolding of science practices such that students' inquiry competencies both improved over time and transferred to new science topics. The…

Recent reforms in science education call for efforts to engage students in authentic and sustained science practices. In order to engage students in authentic science practices, students need to enact epistemic agency over the processes of inquiry in line with how knowledge is constructed and practiced in the real world. A critical research…

This modular, open-framework capstone course delves deeply into the synthesis, separation, and characterization of chiral molecules while teaching critical thinking and writing skills in a research-like setting within a fertile area for discovery. This course has evolved over 30 years and has been in its present form for 5 years at the time of…

The aim of this study is to determine whether the resilience levels and mathematics and science process skills of 5-year-old preschoolers vary significantly based on independent variables (gender, number of siblings, education level of the mother, education level of the father, and family income level) and to detect the correlations between them.…

Science is rapidly changing with vast amounts of new information and technologies available. However, traditional instructional formats do not adequately prepare a diverse population of learners who need to evaluate and use knowledge, not simply memorize facts. Moreover, curricular change has been glacially slow. One starting goal for curricular…

Recent research on science teaching and learning defines science as both a body of knowledge and a process (NRC 2007); it is the integration of science content, practices, and core ideas (NRC 2012). It would follow that science learning should parallel what science is and how it is done; students should not be just consumers of scientific…