Constructing Direct Current (DC) electric circuits is simple and engaging for primary students, but that is not all there is to learning about electricity. Mandatory learning in the Australian Curriculum: Science (ACARA, 2018) expects Year 6 students to explain some of the processes underlying electric circuits. The abstract nature of key…

A teaching approach based on the Biggs and Collis SOLO taxonomy is described. Lessons were planned using the SOLO taxonomy to communicate how students could demonstrate increasing complexity of response to scientific questions. Consideration is given to extending the use of the SOLO taxonomy to create a relational curriculum, which may be useful…

This article presents a case study of "the aspirin unit," a curriculum unit from an advanced chemistry class in a neighborhood high school in a large US city. The extended case method is applied to analyze this curriculum within the larger US political context that criminalizes youth of color. Data sources include retrospective…

This paper reports an empirical study of teacher development in the process of implementing an integrated science curriculum in a junior high school in China. Six science teachers with different subject backgrounds were invited to participate in this study. A pragmatic model of teacher learning that includes both cognitive and situated-learning…

This study aimed to reveal the extent to which citizenship values are included in Saudi Arabian elementary science textbooks, which teachers have to use. The content of six grades 4 to 6 textbooks used in the first and second semesters was analyzed with a focus on three themes related to citizenship values: cultural, social, and political…

Science instruction reform efforts call for increased opportunities for students to engage with science content and practices. School-based citizen science (CS), when implemented well, addresses this call and provides a meaningful context for student learning. Despite CS projects' increasing role in formal science instruction, research on the…

We report on findings from a qualitative study of Australian scientists whose work brings them into contact with the public. This research sought to understand how a school science curriculum could better represent the work of scientists today. We discuss the views expressed by our participant scientists about the importance of openness and…

Reform of the Scottish science curriculum for Higher Chemistry gave students the opportunity to experiment with essential oils and fragrances. With the support of a Royal Society Partnership Grant, the students learnt how to isolate and identify compounds in essential oils using microscale steam distillation and thin-layer chromatography. The…

Research and reform efforts frequently identify evidence as an essential component of science classroom instruction to actively engage students in science practices. Despite this agreement on the primacy of evidence, there is a lack of consensus around what counts as "evidence" in k-12 classrooms (e.g., ages 5-18): scholarship and…

Turkey's politically induced 'curricular modernization initiative' intended a philosophical change and a system-level transformation from behaviouristic to constructivist-inspired pedagogies in the early 2000s. Science curriculum has been one of the curricula that has taken precedence. It has changed four times since then. The latest science…

The recent advancement of large language models presents numerous opportunities for teaching and learning. Despite widespread public debate regarding the use of large language models, empirical research on their opportunities and risks in education remains limited. In this work, we demonstrate the qualities and shortcomings of using ChatGPT 3.5…

The purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate Brazilian school teacher attitudes and approaches to biodiversity education. We aim to specifically compare the amount of native biodiversity topics as measured by teachers' reports of their teaching emphasis. The study involved 147 teachers from all geographic regions of the country, who…

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) and principal component analysis (PCA) are frequently used for analytical purposes in research and industry, but they seldom are part of the chemistry curriculum or laboratory exercises. This case study paper describes the combined application of LIBS and PCA during a research internship for an…

This research explored the perception towards chemistry of class ten students of Phuentsholing Higher Secondary School in Bhutan. It was also to find out the factors that influenced the perception of students towards chemistry. For this research, 90 students were chosen as sample from a population of 95 students through convenience sampling…

This study aims at analyzing the learning outcomes of the 2018 science education curricula in Turkey according to science process skills. Learning outcomes are statements that describe what a learner will know, understand, and/or be able to do after completing a learning process. Learning outcomes were evaluated using document analysis which is a…