After seeing several reports in newspapers making claims about the cause of death after children had swallowed button batteries, a team of students decided to try to establish which (if any) claims were true. The findings were reported in the Schools Exhibition at the ASE Annual Conference 2018 in Liverpool and are shared in detail here. (A…

Science education research has shown that students use causal reasoning, particularly the model "agent--instrument--object," to explain or predict the outcome of many natural situations. Students' reasoning seems to be based on a small set of few intuitive rules. One of these rules quantitatively correlates the outcome of an experiment…

Two groups of year 6 pupils (age 10-11 years) each experienced science practical lessons that were essentially identical but for one difference: one group (theory-led) were told by the teacher what result they should expect, and the other group (hypothetico-deductive) were not. The theory-led group demonstrated experimental bias, recording results…

Conducted classroom observations to determine students' understanding of the nature of science and the intentionality of experiments. Topics discussed include: does science seek to explain, using models, proving that the theoretical explanation is correct, and discussions of different interpretations. Concludes that most students in the 14-16 age…

Examines the definitions of scientific observation used in assessing students in Great Britain for the General Certificate in Secondary Education (GCSE). Proposes an instruction framework that supports such definitions. Provides examples of observational tasks and some methods of evaluating them. (TW)