Despite more than a decade of groundbreaking research on the advantages and need for more historical thinking and historiography in middle and high school history classrooms, many students continue to receive only modest exposure to these teaching concepts and related strategies. Research indicates that middle and high school students who are not…

Place-based education is a form of teaching and learning that allows the teacher to understand the cultural norms of the learners and ensure that cultural norms and local content are reproduced within the classroom so that learning is meaningful, student-centered, and applicable. The traditional definition of place-based education focused on…

When high school students are asked what's the best part of science class, many will say it's the field trips. Students enjoy engaging in authentic, community-based science outside the classroom. To capitalize on this, Patrick Willis created the Bird Box Survey Project for his introductory field biology class. The project takes students…

The People Learning Urban Science (PLUS) program creates partnerships and coordinates efforts involving a local zoo, university, and school district, seeking to instill within students a sense of the natural environment. Even though the majority of students live among concrete and metal structures, their eyes and ears can be trained to make…

This collaborative self-study article explores experiences teaching a cross-curricular undergraduate course that aimed to integrate social studies and science. The course differs from other compulsory components of the teacher candidates' program of study in that it concentrates on disciplinary structure, as opposed to methods, and it treats two…

Educators in informal settings can be a key part of the learning experience, yet they are often poorly supported as professionals. This study followed the professional development of museum educators who participated in iterative implementation of a new school trip program focused on climate change. The learner-centered pedagogy, inquiry format,…

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of mobile learning among young learners. Specifically, we investigated whether the use of mobile devices for data collection during field trips outside the classroom could enhance fourth graders' learning about the parts of the flower and their functions, flower pollinators and the process of…

The purpose of the study was to investigate how young students engage in an inquiry-based project driven by real-life contexts. Elementary school children were engaged in a small inquiry project centred on marine biodiversity and species adaptations. All activities included the exploration of an out-of-school setting as a learning context. A total…

This study aims to investigate the science content remembered by biology students 6 and 12 months after an ecology excursion. The students' memories were tested during a stimulated recall interview. The authors identified three different types of memories: "recall," "recognition" and "narratives." The "dual…

Research and practice is presented on the use of student assessments as part of reflective practice to evaluate teaching. Case studies are presented in the delivery of Engineering modules across a number of years at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Both student performance in continuous assessment and student feedback on assessments…

Pre-service teachers' views of science and scientists have been widely studied. The purpose of this study is to identify whether there is problem of image of scientists and determine where they receive about scientist image. Three hundred thirty five (105 from Turkey, 162 from Europe, 68 from US) elementary pre-service teachers participated in…

In this study, we used the classification and regression trees (CART) method to draw relationships between student self-reported learning outcomes in 26 field trips to natural environments and various characteristics of the field trip that include variables associated with preparation and pedagogy. We wished to examine the extent to which the…

This paper highlights the role of speech community members on a series of interconnected projects to document, study and maintain Kokama, a deeply endangered language from the Peruvian Amazon. The remaining fluent speakers of the language are mostly older than 60 years of age, are spread out across various small villages, and speak the language in…

The STEM team at the University of Worcester support STEM activities in schools in Herefordshire and Worcestershire. Part of this help includes suggesting activities for STEM clubs. As the biologist on the team author, Sue Howarth was asked by teachers for ideas to use in biology clubs. This article was prompted by feedback that these ideas might…

The purpose of this study was to analyze how mobile technologies were incorporated and implemented in an outdoor learning activity. Two classes of primary school students participated in the experiment. Using activity theory as an analytical framework, it is found that underlying tensions provided rich insights into system dynamics and that…