In 1989, the progressive introduction of a National Curriculum of subjects to all maintained schools in England and Wales brought compulsory science education into the primary sectors of these two countries for the first time. Such was its considered importance, science was placed alongside English and mathematics in what became known simply as…

Current high school Earth Science curricula and textbooks organize scientific content into isolated "units" of knowledge. Within this structure, content is taught, but in the absence of the context of fundamental understandings or the process of how the science was actually done to reach the conclusions. These are two key facets of scientific…

In the exciting, "out of this world" activity described here, students measure the Earth using meter sticks while measuring their shadows in two distant locations. To obtain the size of the Earth, students discover the connection between the measurements of the shadows and a model of the spherical Earth following the method developed by…

To explore how elementary teachers may differ from secondary teachers in their views about NOS, a professional development experience involving explicit reflective instruction on NOS, discussions about science with scientists, and exposing the teachers to the practices, techniques, and collaborations fundamental to scientific research was…

This study is a part of a larger study that examined using socioscientific issues (SSI) as a form of effective science teaching. The purpose was to investigate how teaching a year-long curriculum using SSI affects science learning outcomes. In this report, we examine the effects of a SSI-driven curriculum on the development of students' moral…

It is often stated that the physical properties of our universe are "fine tuned"--that is, they must be almost exactly as they are to make the development of intelligent life possible. The implications of this statement, called the "anthropic principle," have been widely discussed in a philosophical context, but the scientific basis for the…

Increasingly widespread agreement exists that the nature of science (NOS) must be an integral element of the K-12 science curriculum with emerging consensus on what specific NOS elements should be the focus of such instruction. In this study reported, eight recent trade books written by NOS experts addressing the nature of science for the general…

The aim of this research is to determine the retention effect of Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI) on students' academic achievement for teaching the Physics topics. The research includes the Force and Pressure units of 7th grade Science Lesson. In this research, 132 students were structured as both control and experiment groups. Traditional…

The authors have developed and field-tested high school-level curricular materials that guide students to use biology, mathematics, and physics to understand plankton and how these tiny organisms move in a world where their intuition does not apply. The authors chose plankton as the focus of their materials primarily because the challenges faced…

To help promote student awareness of the connection between radio astronomy and radio frequency interference (RFI), an inquiry-based science curriculum was developed to allow high school students to determine RFI levels in their communities. The Quiet Skies Project--the result of a collaboration between the National Aeronautics and Space…

This paper will outline answers to the two central questions regarding improving engineering education: (1) What is the full set of knowledge, skills, and attitudes that engineering students should possess as they leave the university, and at what level of proficiency?; and (2) How can we do better at ensuring that students learn these skills? The…

Traditional modes of chemistry education in schools focus on imparting chemistry knowledge to students via instruction. Consequently, students often acquire the mistaken understanding that scientific knowledge comprises a fixed body of "proven" facts. They fail to comprehend that the construction of scientific understanding is a human…

Research on student achievement indicates the U.S. K-12 education system is not adequately preparing American students to compete in the 21st century global economy in the areas of science and mathematics. Congress has asked the scientific entities of the federal government to help increase K-12 science learning by creating standards-based…

This dissertation describes the teaching methods and educational philosophies of natural philosophy instructors at several of the colleges in colonial and early national North America. It finds two distinct approaches: the demonstrative, in which the instructor centers the course on visually engaging lecture-demonstrations, and the catechetical,…

One goal of project-based science is to promote the development of scientific discourse communities in classrooms. Holding rich high school scientific discussions is challenging, especially when the demands of content and norms of high school science pose challenges to their enactment. There is little research on how high school teachers enact…