Despite an increasing focus on integrating engineering design in K-12 settings, relatively few studies have investigated how to support students to engage in systematic processes to optimize the designs of their solutions. Emerging learning technologies such as computational models and simulations enable rapid feedback to learners about their…

This theoretical article proposes using statewide weather-observing networks (Mesonets) to support data-intensive, issue-based teaching of atmospheric topics in middle and high school science. It is argued that the incorporation of this new technology and its affordances into the school curriculum can drastically change the ways that atmospheric…

Data and computational literacies empower youth to be active participants and future leaders in our increasingly data-driven society. We conducted a design-based research project in which a small group (n = 5) of high school youth from diverse backgrounds learned how to code and create data visualizations and stories with public data about climate…

Assessing scientific argumentation is one of main challenges in science education. Constructed-response (CR) items can be used to measure the coherence of student ideas and inform science instruction on argumentation. Published research on automated scoring of CR items has been conducted mostly in English writing, rarely in other languages. The…

The changing landscape of science and science education has provided an impetus to re-imagine how science can be taught in schools. The dawn of the Big Data era, especially in astronomy, and the notion of "Science as Practice" are some of the developments driving this need for a re-imagination of science education. This current work…

Science and mathematics are becoming computational endeavors. This fact is reflected in the recently released Next Generation Science Standards and the decision to include "computational thinking" as a core scientific practice. With this addition, and the increased presence of computation in mathematics and scientific contexts, a new…

The impacts of biotechnology are found in nearly all sectors of society from health care and food products to environmental issues and energy sources. Despite the significance of biotechnology within the sciences, it has not become a prominent trend in science education. In this study, we seek to more fully identify biology teachers' concerns…

Cell-free protein synthesis (CFPS) has emerged as a practical method for producing a broad variety of proteins. In addition, the direct accessibility to the reaction environment makes CFPS particularly suitable as a learning vehicle for fundamental biological concepts. Here, we describe its implementation as a teaching tool for a high school…

This study investigates the possibility of analyzing educational data using the theory of rough sets which is mostly employed in the fields of data analysis and data mining. Data were collected using an open-ended conceptual understanding test of the living things administered to first-year high school students. The responses of randomly selected…

Several researchers have investigated the effects of computer simulations on students' learning. However, few have focused on how simulations with authentic contexts influences students' inquiry skills. Therefore, for the purposes of this study, we developed a computer simulation (FossilSim) embedded in an authentic inquiry lesson. FossilSim…