Design activities can serve as a concrete experience to address the similarities and differences between science and engineering, and also demarcate engineering from tinkering. They can lay the foundation for concept development of targeted disciplinary ideas. Minor, but crucial, changes to classroom tinkering activities along with targeting and…

LASAR (Learning about Science and Religion) has been exploring different opportunities to engage children with practical science enquiry to develop children's understanding of the nature of science and how they suppose science connects to 'big questions'. After-school club opportunities and classroom opportunities are presented.

Drawn from the cultural-historical theories of knowing and doing science, this article uses the concept of professional vision to explore what scientists and experienced teachers see and articulate as important aspects of climate science practices. The study takes an abductive reasoning approach to analyze scientists' videotaped lectures to…

Biological flight mechanics is typically taught in graduate level college classes rather than in secondary school classes. We developed an interdisciplinary unit for advanced upper-level secondary school students (ages 15-18) to teach the principles of flight and applications to biological systems. This unit capitalised on the tremendous…

In this paper, we examine a first-year torque and angular acceleration problem to address a possible use of the forelimbs of "Tyrannosaurus rex." A 1/40th-scale model (see Fig. 1) is brought to the classroom to introduce the students to the quandary: given that the forelimbs of "T. rex" were too short to reach its mouth, what…

New science standards and reform recommendations spanning grades K--16 focus on a limited set of key scientific concepts from each discipline that all students should know. They also emphasize the integration of these concepts with science practices so that students learn not only the "what" of science but also the "how" and…

The two student notebooks in this set provide the basic outline and assignments for the fourth and last year of a senior high school unified science program which builds on the technical third year course, Science IIIA (see SE 012 149). An introductory section considers the problems of survival inherent in living systems, matter-energy…

The two student notebooks in this set provide the basic course outline and assignments for the first year of a four year senior high school unified science program. The first volume consists of these three units: The Universe and Man; Man's Attempt to Understand and Relate to the Process of Change; and Man's Ideas About the Structure of Matter.…

This book includes 12 units that have been adapted from the television series "Voyage of the Mimi." Each unit includes the episode, an activity, and an expedition. The episodes introduce and accompany each episode of the television series. The activity is an extension of that episode which can be done in the classroom. Mapping skills, foreign…

The need for a borderless learning experience is apparent for many subjects, but is particularly important for the science major. We are living in an era when a strand of hair or piece of gum can identify a criminal, and the blueprint of our genes has been mapped out completely. Continuing to educate students merely in the "how to" of…