Everyone has problems, from the smallest ant competing for a food source to the largest elephant needing to cool down. Fortunately, organisms have structures that function to help them solve these problems. So when a group of fourth-grade students look for solutions to their problems, who do they turn to? A biological champion, of course! Plants…

Learning celebrations are increasingly common in schools looking to put more emphasis on community and efficacy in place formulaic science fair projects. The celebration aspect is in the community's participation and interaction with the learners. Students are the main event, performing as they would in a school play or applying acquired knowledge…

The Smarties-Box Challenge encourages students to apply several different mathematical capabilities and concepts--such as, estimation, multiplication, and the notion of being systematic--to solve a complex, multistep problem. To effectively engage in the Smarties-Box Challenge, students are required to demonstrate aspects of all four proficiency…

One area of algebraic thinking essential for students' success is a relational understanding of the equal sign. Research has indicated a positive correlation between students' relational understanding of the equal sign and their equation-solving performance, suggesting that students' early conception of the equal sign may affect their learning and…

This essay presents and discusses an eight-session seminar course designed to develop critical thinking skills in doctoral biochemistry students by exposing them to classical experiments in biochemistry. During each 2.5 session, different key topics of the discovery and development of biochemical concepts are discussed. Before each session,…

Framing mathematics ability as innate or intimately connected to someone's intelligence is common. Have you ever heard a parent or colleague say something akin to, "Jonathan can really write, but I don't know what happened in math!"? Unfortunately, this framing not only narrowly describes how mathematics learning occurs but also raises…

Active learning classrooms provide an ideal opportunity to develop key workplace skills such as teamwork, information processing, critical thinking, and problem solving. Although many active learning pedagogies implicitly support student development of these skills, the role of the instructor in explicitly prompting and assessing these skills in…

Australia's education system has served the nation well, but must continue to evolve to ensure competitiveness in a world racing towards the future. The report recommendations presented seek to optimise the ways industry partnerships can assist in the provision of contemporary, internationally competitive Science, Technology, Engineering, and…

There is a need to teach the pivotal skill of mathematical problem solving to students with severe disabilities, moving beyond basic skills like computation to higher level thinking skills. Problem solving is emphasized as a Standard for Mathematical Practice in the Common Core State Standards across grade levels. This article describes a…

Decision matrices are valuable engineering tools. They allow engineers to objectively examine solution options. Decision matrices can be incorporated in K-12 classrooms to support authentic engineering instruction. In this article we provide examples of how decision matrices have been incorporated into 6th and 7th grade classrooms as part of an…

This article describes the theory, key components, and empirical support for the Classroom Strategies Coaching (CSC) Model, a data-driven coaching approach that systematically integrates data from multiple observations to identify teacher practice needs and goals, design practice plans, and evaluate progress towards goals. The primary aim of the…

Field placements serve as the traditional "clinical" experience for prospective mathematics teachers to immerse themselves in the mathematical challenges of students. This article reports data from a different type of learning experience, that of a clinical simulation with a standardized individual. We begin with a brief background on…

Our students will continue to be confronted with many environment and sustainability issues during their lifetimes because they are unpredictable, serious and complex by nature. These issues challenge not just our technologies but our universities and educational institutions, values and way of living and interaction. Competency-based education…

When the author took on the role of primary science advisory teacher at Centre for Industry Education Collaboration (CIEC) she thought it would be a really interesting role that would give her room to develop her skills as a teacher, but she had not appreciated just how powerful the links to industry can be for children. One example of how such an…

There are many geometrical approaches to the solution of the quadratic equation with real coefficients. In this article it is shown that the monic quadratic equation with complex coefficients can also be solved graphically, by the intersection of two hyperbolas; one hyperbola being derived from the real part of the quadratic equation and one from…