An understanding of how sensemaking unfolds when elementary students engage in engineering design tasks is crucial to advancing engineering teaching and learning at K-12 levels. Sensemaking has been widely studied in the context of science as a discipline. In this paper, we seek to contribute to the more nascent efforts to build theory about the…

Visual data--or visual sources of information--are a crucial part of helping students understand STEM concepts, improve their reading skills, and engage in science and engineering practices (Finson and Pedersen 2011). Indeed, many science and engineering practices require students to make meaning from visual data. When students are developing and…

Outdoor educational activities provide unique opportunities to observe and understand wild animals, to enhance curiosity and to cope with misconceptions regarding the natural environment. The present work, addressed to 3-12 years-old children, focuses on three aims. First, we assessed whether a scientific fishing activity involving live animals,…

This study compared four horseless and seven traditional horse participants from Washington County 4-H in Utah for horse knowledge gained and for the development of 10 life skills from Hendricks's Targeting Life Skills Model: leadership, teamwork, self-responsibility, personal safety, problem-solving, decision-making, critical thinking, goal…

Large data sets invite students to engage in scientific practices such as question asking, identifying correlations, using visualizations, and practicing data literacy in an authentic context. However, authentic data sets are rarely introduced in the biology classroom. We prepared an online inquiry activity based on authentic gross characteristics…

Learning style (LS), either visual or verbal, has become debatable in the f ield of education vis-à-vis its relation to student success. However, it remains a valuable research theme for improving learning activities in the teaching of highly visual science fields, including biology, physics, and chemistry. Previous studies have primarily focused…

Science centers provide an engaging way for young learners to explore related concepts. The hands-on nature of each exercise secures the stimulation necessary to maintain focused attention. In this article, the authors describe a multi-day 5E (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, Evaluate) lesson on nocturnal and diurnal animals with science…

Background: Natureculture (Fuentes, 2010; Haraway, 2003) constructs offer a powerful framework for science education to explore learners' interactions with and understanding of the natural world. Technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR) designed to reveal pets' sensory worlds and companionship with pets can facilitate learners' harmonious…

Cetacean watching is an increasingly popular economic activity in Ecuador for tourism operators. Despite government regulations, cetacean watching can have a negative impact on observed animal populations. To enhance good dolphin-watching practices, a course was carried out in Puerto El Morro, Ecuador about sensitisation activities promoting…

Students often experience difficulty in connecting knowledge from different college courses to solve complex problems such as ocean acidification, a pressing concern within the ongoing climate crisis. Here, we introduce a multidisciplinary activity in which students use their chemistry knowledge of change and stability in chemical systems through…

Urbanization decreased natural habitats and technological developments cause children to become more and more disconnected from nature (Kahyaoglu & Yetisir, 2015). This disconnection has increased interest in ecology-based nature education in many countries. Ecology-based nature education is an out-of-school education program that enables to…

This article provides two activities, exploring genetic drift of small breeding populations, highlighting the black-footed ferret ("Mustela nigripes"). According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service, all black-footed ferrets are descended from 18 individuals, making them extremely vulnerable to genetic drift. They were thought to be…

Canine-assisted activities in schools can benefit students' educational, emotional, and social needs. Furthermore, they could be an effective form of non-clinical mental health treatment for children and adolescents. In the United Kingdom, school dogs are growing in popularity, however, little is known about how parents perceive canine-assisted…

Background: Student anxiety about statistics may lead to poorer learning outcomes. Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate an exercise designed to teach students in an introductory statistics class the principles of bivariate regression and to emphasize how statistical tools used by psychologists are also implemented in other fields.…

The topic 'Animals including humans' runs through the primary science National Curriculum in England (DfE, 2013). Ideally, topics such as inheritance will lead onto adaptation, natural selection and evolution across key stages 1 to 2 (ages 5-11). This article provides nine engaging activities to support the teaching of adaptation and improve…