If a smooth ball is dropped vertically without spin on a smooth horizontal surface then one might expect the ball to bounce vertically without spin. If it does not then the centre of mass of the ball does not coincide with its geometric centre. An experiment is described where a billiard ball and a superball are deliberately biassed by adding a…

In-depth understanding of nature of science (NOS) moves beyond knowledge of discrete NOS aspects to consider connections among NOS aspects. This study presents three teacher cases pre to post a nature of science graduate course to explore the potential of an innovative analytic approach that focuses on the connections individual learners make…

The question of whether Faraday's flux law is universal or whether there are exceptions has long been controversial. This discussion seemed to have recently concluded in favor of the generality of Faraday's Flux Law. The present article raises this question again with the aid of some rather simple measurements carried out on a Faraday generator.…

Researchers of science education, historians, and philosophers of science agree that the teaching of nature of science (NOS) is important to be integrated into K-12 classes. Our previous research showed that NOS is not embedded into science teaching in Greece. To study the possibility of its integration, a PD-program for in-service science…

In this article we analyze the classic Hodgkin and Keynes 1955 paper describing investigations of the independence principle, with the expectation that there is much students and educators can learn from such exercises, most notably how the authors applied their diverse skill set to tackling the numerous obstacles that the study presented. The…

Social realist theorising about curriculum and social justice in higher education has emphasised the importance of providing equity of epistemic access to powerful knowledge. However, there has been little discussion about what constitutes powerful knowledge and how students can use it for social good. In the science disciplines, the traditional…

Throughout the world scientific reasoning (SR) is a valuable and desirable ability to gain deeper understanding of science in all grade level. In the current study, we first adapted the SPR-I (7) which consists of seven items with three sub-dimensions as the experimentation, the understanding the nature of science (NOS) and the data…

This study aims to investigate the effect of the teaching model developed for hot conceptual change on middle school 7th-grade students' understanding of the Nature of Science (NOS) aspects. In this qualitative and exploratory study, activities were carried out with 24 students of two classes in a village school in the South Marmara region using a…

Energy is one important concept in physics, but science education research has repeatedly shown that students struggle to develop a full understanding of energy. Especially challenging for students is the notion of potential energy. Overwhelmed by the sheer number of potential energy forms, students struggle to make connections between them.…

This study investigates the process of students' metacognitive learning about homeostasis, a fundamental biological principle. The research aimed to determine how the metacognitive awareness learning approach (MCLA) affects student perceptions of homeostasis. The research participants were 146 Israeli 10th-grade students (ages 15-16) who were…

The paper presents an empirical study on physics, chemistry, and biology teachers' perceptions of nature of science (NOS) and domains of science. Family Resemblance Approach to NOS (FRA) was used as a theoretical framework and informed the data analysis approaches. FRA inherently considers both domain-general and domain-specific features of NOS,…

The presence of the ether concept in the contents of 73 Spanish physics textbooks (secondary and first course university level) published in the period 1840-1950 is studied. The textbooks are a specially interesting learning tool in the Spanish society of this period, due to the rural character of the country, the capacity of the textbooks for…

This study investigated the impact of teaching materials developed using the reconceptualized family resemblance approach to the nature of science (RFN) on pre-service chemistry teachers views about the nature of science (NOS). The materials were based on the book "Leviathan and the Air-Pump: Hobbes, Boyle, and the Experimental Life" by…

This laboratory experiment consists of the synthesis of two series of alkaline-earth titanates (calcium-strontium and strontium-barium)to corroborate Vegard's law by obtaining their X-ray diffraction patterns and plotting the lattice parameter versus mole fraction of both cations. This experiment allows students to understand the key concepts in…

Even though many physics teachers take their students on a calculation adventure through circular motion and Newton's universal law of gravity to determine Earth's velocity, most of us leave it at that. We present the final result and say, "Look, Earth is moving around the Sun at about 107,000 km/hr (66,000 mph), yet we can't feel the motion…