The goal of this research was to test the effectiveness of a new science curriculum focused on increasing awareness and knowledge of microplastic pollution in middle school students. The curriculum utilized three teaching methods including lectures, object-mediated learning, and peer collaboration to enhance student engagement and learning. The 84…

Inquiry-based learning overcomes the gap between the acquisition of knowledge through discovery though it is not always directly proportional to students' development of critical thinking (CT). Knowledge about the real-world contexts in which children will learn is the first step in cultivating CT in science learning. Science inquiry is most…

One way to preserve culture in education is through ethnoscience-based learning, especially in chemical materials linked to various fields of science in life, including social and cultural. Ethnoscience is a process of reconstructing indigenous science knowledge with scientific science. This research aims to explore trends in ethnoscience-based…

Traditional teaching practices lack student-focused learning, critical thinking, interactivity, creativity and student's engagement in the classroom, which results in boredom and low motivation among students. Moreover, these practices disregard diversification or variability in learners in a classroom. To engage such learners and create better…

Ecosystem services (ES) are the benefits people obtain from nature contributing to our well-being. Although this concept has high didactic potential, its presence in education literature is scarce. This article presents the ES framework as a new teaching principle that, taught together with the biodiversity concept, may help students develop…

In an effort to further develop critical thinking and problem solving skills, a guided-inquiry-based, multioutcome organic chemistry synthesis and characterization experiment was developed. Students were provided with the protocol for a time-saving microwave-assisted acetanilide synthesis reaction from acetic anhydride and an unknown primary aryl…

Contribution: This article explores the impact of academic coaching on science and engineering students through a pilot study. The study proposes integrating academic coaching as a standard component of the student support framework. Background: Unlike mentoring or informing, coaching or inquiring practice encourages higher education students to…

Advancements in technology have led to significant changes in the workforce and created a demand for expertise in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). In response, curricula have evolved to emphasize essential skills such as critical thinking and communication to prepare students for STEM-based careers. To this end,…

This practitioner action research study explored features of NGSS-based pedagogies to improve secondary education student engagement, critical thinking, and collaborative problem-solving. It examined ways that constructivist pedagogies might encourage students to understand science by putting their skills and knowledge into practice as young…

Energy concepts are taught in many schools, but children rarely have an opportunity to grapple with energy problems and work on their own solutions. This study explores the impacts of Connect Science, a service-learning (SL) program developed to enhance elementary students' energy literacy in the United States. Program impacts were explored within…

This study brings together insights from the Science Education Initiative with a new course, "Spy Novel Diplomacy: Propaganda and International Relations," which has been taught as a General Education Seminar for first year students. The class will continue on an annual basis from the spring semester of 2020 onward. Thus what follows is…

An in-class case study is presented for use in a liberal arts core extreme weather course, designed to foster science literacy, appreciation, and critical thinking skills in nonscience majors. Students are ultimately shown the critical importance of the physical sciences in their daily lives and encouraged to consider STEM (science, technology,…

This study was conducted to examine the effects of practices based on the Argumentation-Based Enquiry (ABI) approach on the critical thinking of science teacher candidates in a course named the General Chemistry Laboratory course. The General Chemistry Laboratory course was taught through the ABI approach for 12 weeks, and 94 teacher candidates…

The Curriculum for Agricultural Science Education (CASE) is a national curriculum model used to promote inquiry-based learning, with a focus on facilitating student development of critical thinking skills through hands-on application. However, limited research has been conducted on how agriculture teachers are using the curriculum after completing…

Project-based learning has been suggested as an effective student-centered practice to teach science. However, how to assess students' learning in project-based learning activities remains challenging because of its open-ended nature. In this study of high school students' science internships, we demonstrated that "cogenerative dialogs"…