The study seeks to explore the extent to which students think pedagogical activities exemplifying various degrees of contextualization accurately reflect the work of scientists. Arguing for scaffolding across multiple degrees of contextualization, Clough (2006) reasoned that different contextualization plays different, but complimentary, roles in…

The purpose of this study is to develop a history of science activity which can be used to improve middle school students' nature of science views. The activity was designed and implemented based on an explicit-reflective approach within the context of the circulatory system. The activity was designed for grade 6 students and implemented during…

An astronomy "experiment" composed of three parts is described in the article. Being given necessary data a simple model of inner planets of the solar system is made in the first part with planets' circular orbits using appropriate scale. In the second part revolution of the figurines used as model representations of the planets along…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the current science and technology curriculum for the balance of scientific literacy (SL) aspects and its potential to educate scientifically literate citizens. Human body system unit of current science curriculum was investigated to see whether scientific literacy aspects were reflected sufficiently to…

This research investigated the effect of reflective discussions following inquiry-based laboratory activities on students' views of the tentative, empirical, subjective, and social aspects of nature of science (NOS). Thirty-eight grade six students from a Lebanese school participated in the study. The study used a pretest-posttest control-group…

When the nature of science (NOS) is reinforced, middle school students will be able to appreciate scientific inquiry processes and communication, as outlined in the National Science Education Standards (NRC 1996). To this end, the authors developed a mummy-making and dissection activity to help sixth- and seventh-grade students learn more about…