Atomic-level visualizations serve as pivotal instructional tools in chemistry education, providing insights into the particulate level of matter, a dimension fundamental, yet typically invisible, in the study of chemistry. This research investigates how students' engagement with these visualizations influences their conceptual understanding of…

Interpreting and creating computational systems models is an important goal of science education. One aspect of computational systems modeling that is supported by modeling, systems thinking, and computational thinking literature is "testing, evaluating, and debugging models." Through testing and debugging, students can identify aspects…

Recent science education reforms, as described in the "Framework for K-12 Science Education" (NRC, 2012), call for three-dimensional learning that engages students in scientific practices and the use of scientific lenses to learn science content. However, relatively little research at any grade level has focused on how students develop…

This study with 79 students in Montreal, Quebec, compared the educational use of a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) global climate model (GCM) to climate education technologies developed for classroom use that included simpler interfaces and processes. The goal was to show how differing climate education technologies succeed…

Components of complex systems apply across multiple subject areas, and teaching these components may help students build unifying conceptual links. Students, however, often have difficulty learning these components, and limited research exists to understand what types of interventions may best help improve understanding. We investigated 32 high…

In the past decade, reform efforts in science education have increasingly attended to engaging students in scientific practices such as scientific modeling. Engaging students in scientific modeling can help them develop their epistemologies by allowing them to attend to the roles of mechanism and empirical evidence when constructing and revising…

When students take General Chemistry there are substantially fewer molecular images than they will encounter in Organic Chemistry. The molecular images Organic Chemistry students see in their textbooks are ones that use dashes and wedges to represent 2D and semi 3D views, ball and spoke, ball and wire, and structural formulas, to name just a few.…

Explores dynamic modeling as an opportunity for students to think about the science content they are learning. Concludes that creating dynamic models has great potential for use in classrooms to engage students in analysis, relational reasoning, and synthesis. Contains 21 references. (DDR)

Argues for an expanded role for the concept of emergent levels in science education. Cites confusion of levels and slippage between levels as the source of many people's misunderstandings about patterns and phenomena. Contains 35 references. (DDR)

Describes the Virtual Solar System (VSS) course which is one of the first attempts to integrate three-dimensional (3-D) computer modeling as a central component of introductory undergraduate education. Assesses changes in student understanding of astronomy concepts as a result of participating in an experimental introductory astronomy course in…

Recent research in science education has recognized the importance of history and philosophy of science. The objective of this study is to evaluate the presentation of the Thomson, Rutherford, and Bohr models of the atom in general physics textbooks based on criteria derived from history and philosophy of science. Forty-one general physics…

Explorer is an interactive environment based on a constructivist epistemology of learning that integrates animated computer models with analytic capabilities for learning science. The system includes graphs, a spreadsheet, scripting, and interactive tools. Two examples involving the dynamics of colliding objects and electric circuits illustrate…