To improve the teaching and learning materials for a curriculum it is important to incorporate the findings from educational research. In light of this, we present creative exercises and experiments to elicit, confront and resolve misconceptions in geometrical optics. Since ray diagrams can be both the cause and the solution for many…

Described are ways of utilizing intuition in scientific discovery. Students are directed to read detective stories and biographical accounts of scientists in order to gain understandings of the differences between intuition and deduction. Questions, information, and teaching suggestions are included. (Author/DB)

A middle school science teacher describes the learning and thinking processes of his class as they worked and played with pendulums and learned to build a swing that could tell time. The article illustrates how students can learn the value of the scientific method for problem solving. (DB)

Gives several sample experiment problems for electricity and magnetism. To solve an experiment problem, students have to do one or more of the following: clarify a poorly defined problem, divide a problem into parts, access the appropriate concept needed to solve each problem part, decide whether approximations are appropriate, design an…

Describes an approach to teaching the scientific method where an outbreak of cholera within the school is simulated. Students act like epidemiologists in an attempt to track down the source of the contamination. (PR)

Describes the process of problem identification, data collection, and generalization in a mathematical experiment to find the speed at which a bug travels at the end of a fan blade. Presents the learning outcomes of the experiment and possible implications of using this teaching method. (MDH)

Describes a contest where sixth-grade students observe the results of a week of planning, folding, testing, and comparing their best paper frog designs and hopping techniques. This integrated unit helps children unleash their imaginations and develop problem-solving skills. (PR)

Describes a contemporary adaptation of the "Footprint Puzzle," whigh was first developed in the 1960s for the Earth Science Curriculum Project. Students sequentially look at three frames of track drawings. For each frame, students first list observations and then make inferences about the observations. (PR)

N:4$2 N:4$N Reported are results of a Technical Education Research Centers (TERC) project describing telecommunication interactions between groups of students using the computer software unit "Connectany." Polygons are formed through repetitive "jumps" between points on a circle. Investigation questions and results are shared…

The IADIS CELDA 2012 Conference intention was to address the main issues concerned with evolving learning processes and supporting pedagogies and applications in the digital age. There had been advances in both cognitive psychology and computing that have affected the educational arena. The convergence of these two disciplines is increasing at a…