Have the Next Generation Science Standards fulfilled a goal of specifying the objectives of precollege science education in clear and exact enough terms to make them readily implementable? Using students' understanding of the concept of a variable as a case in point, the author suggests that the standards, despite their seeming precision and…

In this article, two lessons are introduced in which students examine Arctic lake sediments from Lake El'gygytgyn in Russia and discover a climate signal in a lake or pond near their own school. The lessons allow students to experience fieldwork, understand lab procedure, practice basic measurement and observation skills, and learn how to…

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of the applying the cooperative learning model and the modeling based teaching method together in teaching the subjects "Matter and Heat" and "The Particle Structure and Properties of Matter" on students' academic achievement and science process skills. A quasi-experimental…

It was aimed to investigate the effect of teacher candidates' self-efficacy towards science teaching and technological pedagogical content knowledge on their self-confidence. In this study, pre-experimental design method was used. Thirty prospective science teachers from different universities participated. The trainings were given by faculty…

Background: As inquiry-based instruction is not universally implemented in science classrooms, it is crucial to introduce instructional strategies through the use of contextualized learning activities to allow students with different background knowledge and abilities to learn the essential competencies of scientific inquiry and promote their…

Building on Social Cognitive Career Theory and Xueli Wang's conceptual model of STEM choice, this study advances and tests a model seeking to understand STEM readiness and intention to pursue STEM fields among a representative national sample of 9th grade students drawn from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009. Structural equation model…

We engaged 47 eighth-grade students in a newly developed learning environment that integrates mobile augmented reality (AR) technology to support students' learning of nuclear energy use and radiation pollution, a topic related to a socioscientific issue (SSI) that involves complex reasoning considering scientific evidence and multiple…

Teaching practical chemistry skills remotely is not a task that would have been high on the agenda only a few months ago. However, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, students around the world are having to work from home, and the chemistry education community has been forced to adapt to the new circumstances. In response, we discuss the use of…

Shanghai is dubbed as a role model for science and mathematics education as its fifteen-year-olds have been outperforming all in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) since 2009. Shanghai's achievements are attributed to its interest in adopting innovative international trends in education and equally effectively implementing…

Bioscientists such as geneticists and molecular biologists regularly demonstrate the integration of domain concepts and science inquiry practices/skills while explaining a natural phenomenon. The complexity of these concepts and skills becomes manifold at the tertiary undergraduate level and are known to be challenging for learners. They learn…

From a learning ecology perspective, this paper aims to better understand how girls become gifted in CT competencies and how CT competencies were manifested through the co-influence of multiple factors in the developmental trajectory. A life-narrative approach using interviews was taken to unpack the significant factors that facilitate or limit…

This advanced undergraduate chemistry laboratory exercise takes advantage of the unique spectroscopic properties of the free radical chlorine dioxide to allow for a direct comparison of its symmetric stretch in both the ground and excited states. It incorporates several subject areas covered in an undergraduate chemistry degree (synthesis,…

Science educators are typically dismayed by the failure of students to use relevant scientific knowledge when reasoning about socioscientific issues. Except for the well-documented association between having more knowledge about a topic and a tendency to use that knowledge, the influences on students' evaluation of information in socioscientific…

Plants are often overlooked in favour of animals when teaching about living things. Focusing on familiar animals that share human characteristics helps young children learn about similar features. Examining plants for their differences, though, helps foster wonder. In the author's experience, children find it intriguing that plants need…

Recent efforts to reform K-12 science curricula, embedded within the "NRC Framework for K-12 Science Education" and the "Next Generation Science Standards," have focused on unifying core disciplinary content with crosscutting concepts that span across science disciplines and scientific practices. With these reforms comes the…