An increased reliance on nanotechnology and recent developments in materials fabrication coincide with a greater prevalence of 3D printers in high schools. We developed this lesson to foster an exploration of interdisciplinary fields and to increase access to recent advances in materials chemistry through two different learning modules. The lab…

Seeking to make upper secondary school physics more relevant and engaging, an online collaborative learning curriculum was designed. Each of the curriculum's lessons was structured as a goal-based scenario about human scientists on Mars. Video and audio data from the curriculum's implementation in Denmark was collected. This study utilized the…

At the beginning of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic surprised the world, affecting activities that promote attendance, including abruptly impacting the education area. Educational institutions, from preschool to university, were required to adopt alternative teaching methods to continue their activities. Distance learning has been adopted by educators…

In the past decade, emphasis on promoting "climate literacy" in K-16 science classrooms has increased. Teachers play a critical role in cultivating these opportunities, especially in secondary science classrooms. However, most prior climate education research has focused on students and student learning; little is known about how…

This study reported the application of an interactive Open Education Resource, namely, an open virtual experiment simulator education tool (OVESET), in teaching the kinetics of atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) in a polymer science classroom. The OVESET ATRP kinetic simulator aims at improving students' inductive reasoning skills.…

The objective of this study is to better understand the process by which K-12 school districts select curricula materials in four critical subject areas: Mathematics, English Language Arts, Science, and History and Social Studies. This research has two primary goals: (1) to understand the process by which K-12 school districts select and adopt…

This response to Rachel Muehrer, Jennifer Jenson, Jeremy Friedberg and Nicole Husain's paper, "Challenges and opportunities: Using a science-based video game in secondary school settings," explores the issues encountered while a science-based video game is introduced in secondary school settings. It highlights the importance of the context, the…

Research in education suggests that computer games can serve as powerful learning environments, however, teachers perceive many obstacles to using games as teaching tools. In this study, we examine three science teachers' implementation and perceptions of a curriculum unit incorporating the game, Mission Biotech (MBt) and a set of supporting…

The educational video game Mission Biotech provides a virtual experience for students in learning biotechnology materials and tools. This study explores the use of Mission Biotech and the associated curriculum by three high school teachers and their students. All three classes demonstrated gains on a curriculum-aligned test of science content.…

The field of nanotechnology has outgrown the discovery phase into the application and even commercial production phases. Consequently, the need for a workforce capable of supporting this growth is more than ever. However, because of the different challenges associated with nanotechnology education, specific courses are required to be developed and…

Simulations and games are not new artifacts to the study of science in secondary school settings (Hug, Kriajcik and Marx 2005), however teachers remain skeptical as to their value, use and appropriateness (Rice 2006). The difficulty is not only the design and development of effective play environments that produce measurable changes in knowledge…

While the ready-made Lego[TM] Robotics kits are popular in schools and are used by students at both primary and secondary year levels, using the Picaxe microcontroller (chip) to create simple electronic devices, including robotic devices is less popular. The latter imposes an additional challenge as a result of the need to construct the universal…

Geospatial technologies are increasingly being integrated in science classrooms to foster learning. This study examined whether a Web-enhanced science inquiry curriculum supported by geospatial technologies promoted urban middle school students' understanding of energy concepts. The participants included one science teacher and 108 eighth-grade…

This paper is a response to "Challenges and Opportunities: Using a science-based video game in secondary school settings" by Rachel Muehrer, Jennifer Jenson, Jeremy Friedberg, and Nicole Husain. The article highlights two critical areas that I argue require more research in the studies of video games in education. The first area focuses on the…

Maine's one-to-one laptop program provides an ideal opportunity to explore conditions that optimize teacher integration of technology-focused curriculum into the classroom. EcoScienceWorks (ESW) is an ecology curriculum that includes targeted simulations and a code block programming challenge developed through an NSF-ITEST grant. The project was…