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…

This paper will describe a guided inquiry activity for teaching ligand field theory. Previous research suggests the guided inquiry approach is highly effective for student learning. This activity familiarizes students with the key concepts of molecular orbital theory applied to coordination complexes. Students will learn to identify factors that…

In this article, I introduce a framework for guiding future citizens to think critically about nature of science (NOS) and "with" NOS as they engage in socioscientific decision making. The framework, referred to as the critical thinking--nature of science (CT-NOS) framework, explicates and targets both NOS as a learning objective and NOS…

This article describes a lesson where students explore the absorbency of several towels with different weaves and weights. The lesson follows the 5E learning-cycle model and incorporates engineering in the sense of product testing with a focus on the relationship between the weave of a towel and its absorbency. The National Science Education…

Writing for an audience different from teachers motivates students to translate their existing knowledge into audience-appropriate language, in which students explain, elaborate, and integrate their understanding of science concepts using more than just the technical language of the subject. Several studies also have found that students can…

The authors have spent many years providing professional development in the area of science education, working alongside teachers and observing children in the classroom. These experiences have convinced them that activities involving inclined planes are possibly the best science activities they have ever encountered. They call their collection of…

Hopscotch, basketball, or hide-and-seek? Children have many choices at recess, and while making these choices they must consider and make trade-offs. The way they make these decisions is not that different from the thought processes engineers use when making design trade-offs. Engineers have to make trade-offs because a design that meets all…

Several misconceptions abound among college students taking their first general physics course, and to some extent pre-engineering physics students, regarding the physics and applications of electric circuits. Analogies used in textbooks, such as those that liken an electric circuit to a piped closed loop of water driven by a water pump, do not…

Three plain mirrors, perpendicular to each other, reflect a beam of light back into the direction it came from. An activity is suggested where pupils can employ this feature of perpendicular mirrors and make their own corner cube retroreflector--a kind of cat's eye. (Contains 7 figures and 1 footnote.)

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of an activity-based explicit nature of science (NOS) instruction undertaken in the context of a "Science, Technology and Society" course on the prospective science teachers' (PSTs') understandings of NOS. In this course, social science based inquiry activities were used to as a context…

In order to create student interest and promote new connections to the understanding of fundamental physics concepts, there is a need for new approaches and methods that are both contemporary and relevant. Dr Skateboard's Action Science, a curriculum supplement comprising video instruction and classroom activities, is an example that focuses on…

It is important that students have the opportunity to experience the nature and processes of science for themselves. The sequence of activities presented in this paper--Draw-a-Scientist and the Mystery Box Redux--were designed to help students better understand the nature of science (NOS) and engage them in the process of scientific inquiry. These…

You can't see, smell or taste air - but here's an easy method for experimenting with it. (Editor)

Offers suggestions for activities that demonstrate the principles of osmosis. Explains how decalcified chicken eggs can be used to give students practice with measurement, experimental procedures, and science principles. (ML)

Using hands-on activities and the "Plan, Do, Review" approach, this physics curriculum for 3-year-old children is designed to develop an early interest in and enthusiasm for science and to excite children about learning in general. The curriculum is designed to be implemented biweekly in preschool or child care programs but may also be…