The Chain Experiment competition has been held successfully for 6 years in Poland and is attracting growing interest. The competition provides participants with a task that involves designing and constructing a contraption that is an element in a chain of events that are based on various physical phenomena. The contraptions are then linked…

In this article, newly qualified teacher (NQT) Alexander Odeneal shares some ideas that primary teachers could use to capture pupils' interest and support scientific discussions. The article offers four different activities and an explanation of why they do what they do to support the non-specialist teacher leading the lesson. Each activity…

Primary level education follows a pedagogy model where literature and science have been historically separated. Natural children processes are disrupted, as learning based on play curiosity is completely transformed by a chalkboard model. Specific experimental realizations can link thinking processes based on science to study problems…

We present a showcase with interactive exhibits of basic physical experiments that constitutes a complementary method for teaching physics and interesting students in physical phenomena. Our interactive physics showcase, shown in Fig. 1, stimulates interest for science by letting the students experience, firsthand, surprising phenomena and…

In view of student shift away from science at advanced levels, and gender and locale based divergence in interest in studying physics, chemistry and biology, this study explores experience categories that significantly contribute to interest in science on a sample of upper primary school students from Kerala, India. A series of multiple regression…

Contemporary instructional approaches expect students to be active producers of knowledge. This leads to the need for creation of instructional tools and tasks that can offer students opportunities for active learning. This study examines the effect of a computational experiment as an instructional tool-for Grade 12 students, using a computer…

Following the supposition that study of a subject through a specific problem is an effective way to develop thinking, the author advocates classroom experimentation that requires the student to put forth a hypothesis, test its validity, advance a theory, and try a new problem. (JH)