The past several decades have been times of widespread change in world economies. The 21st century has witnessed scientific technological innovations that have had an impact on almost every sector of our social institutions and the way we do things. To succeed in these changing economies and secure meaningful employment, STEM literacy and…

This study contextualized the use of the engineering design process by providing descriptions of how each element in a design process was integrated in an eleventh grade industry and engineering systems course. The guiding research question for this inquiry was: How do students engage in the engineering design process in a course where technology…

The Natural History Museum's new Darwin Centre fulfils three main roles. It is a state-of-the-art scientific research and collections facility, but it is also an awe-inspiring new public space that allows visitors to explore the natural world in an exciting and innovative way. With its opening, students can experience the relevance of the science…

4-H youth development programs nationwide are responding to the 4-H National Science, Engineering, and Technology (4-H SET) Initiative to involve more youth in Science, Engineering, and Technology activities. The goal is to increase the numbers of youth choosing to pursue SET careers. This article describes a program that is having great success…

The BioBridge Professional Development model was created to bring current and relevant science into the high school classroom. The purpose of this intervention was to connect teachers with relevant science and to create innovative, hands-on activities that engage students, with the goal of increasing student interest in STEM careers. To this end,…

Over the past several years, the authors have been developing an instructional technology, called Teachable Agents (TA), which draws on the social metaphor of teaching to help students learn. Students teach a computer character, their "agent," by creating a concept map of nodes connected by qualitative causal links. The authors hypothesize that…

The many activities contained in this teaching guide emphasize hands-on involvement, prediction, data collection and interpretation, teamwork, and problem solving. The guide also contains background information about aeronautical research that can help students learn how airplanes fly. Following the background sections are a series of activities…

As teachers of first-year college mathematics and science students, the authors are constantly on the lookout for simple classroom exercises that improve their students' analytical and computational skills. In this article, the authors outline a project entitled "Predicting Precipitation in Darwin." In this project, students: (1) analyze…

The purpose of this article is to focus on the development and refinement of a science instructional design program arguing for the feasibility and usability of integrated reading and science instruction as implemented in third- and fourth-grade science classrooms to meet the learning needs of diverse learners. These instructional components are…

Argument-Driven Inquiry (ADI) is an instructional model that enables science teachers to transform a traditional laboratory activity into a short integrated instructional unit. To illustrate how the ADI instructional model works, this article describes an ADI lesson developed for a 10th-grade chemistry class. This example lesson was designed to…

This case study reviewed the collaborative efforts of university engineers, teacher educators, and middle school teachers to advance sixth- and seventh-grade students' learning through a series of project-based engineering activities. This two-year project enriched regular school curricula by introducing real-world applications of science and…

Dilated canine hearts were used to teach undergraduate students internal and external cardiac anatomy. The specimens were dilated using hydrostatic pressure and then fixed using 5% formalin. These specimens provided the students with an alternative to prepackaged embalmed hearts and anatomical models for studying the external and internal cardiac…

The following experiment describes an easy experiment for children 11-12 years old, performed during spring in a compulsory school near Karlstad, Sweden. Four different ripe fruits were placed under flowering plants of Impatiens New Guinea (Impatiens hawkeri) for four days on a table and with plastic bags around both plants and fruits. For one of…

Few European countries have developed a broad strategic framework to raise the profile of science in education and wider society. However, a wide range of initiatives have been implemented in many countries. The impact of these various activities is nevertheless difficult to measure. School partnerships with science-related organisations are…

Academics preparing students for experiential placements within professional programs require considerable curriculum planning and pedagogical expertise. Communities of practice involving workshops and online processes provide opportunities for collaborative work in developing quality curriculum materials and also in supporting widespread…