Quantum physics forms the basis for exciting new technologies, including quantum computers, quantum encryption, and quantum entanglement. The advancement of science and technology highlights the importance of mastering quantum physics and its applications, not only at the college level but also as early as high school. In this multiple case study,…

Understanding genetics is one of the most significant learning difficulties faced by students. To improve teaching genetics and the students' representational competence within the classroom have been proposed using multiple representations. This study presents an analysis of representational levels used by high school students learning Mendelian…

Here, we describe the development and validation of an automatic assessment system that examines students' hand-drawn visual representations in free-response items. The data were collected from 1,028 students in the second through 11th grades in South Korea using two items from the Test About Particles in a Gas questionnaire (Novick &…

Emoji are commonly used in social media to convey attitudes and emotions. While popular, their use in educational contexts has been sparsely studied. This paper reports on the students' use of emoji in an online course forum in which students annotate and discuss course material in the margins of the online textbook. For this study, instructors…

As science grows in complexity, science teachers face an increasing challenge of helping students interpret models that represent complex science systems. Little is known about how teachers select and use models when planning lessons. This mixed methods study investigated the pedagogical approaches and visual models used by elementary in-service…

A hands-on symmetry project is proposed as an innovative way of teaching point groups to undergraduate chemistry students. Traditionally, courses teaching symmetry require students to identify the point group of a given object. This project asks the reverse: students are instructed to identify an object that matches each point group. Doing so…

The ability to interpret and reason from Tree of Life (ToL) diagrams has become a vital component of science literacy in the 21st century. This article reports on the effectiveness of a research-based curriculum, including an instructional booklet, laboratory, and lectures, to teach the fundamentals of such tree thinking in an introductory biology…

Physics education research has shown that students tend to struggle when trying to use mathematics in a meaningful way in physics (e.g., mathematizing a physical situation or making sense of equations). Concerning the possible reasons for these difficulties, little attention has been paid to the way mathematics is treated in physics instruction.…

Researchers have examined the use of homemade PowerPoint games as an instructional technique to improve learning outcomes. However, test data have shown no significant difference in performance between high school chemistry students who created games and students who did not (Siko, Barbour, & Toker, 2011). One of the justifications for the use…

This study employed eye-tracking technology to examine how students with different levels of prior knowledge process text and data diagrams when reading a web-based scientific report. Students' visual behaviors were tracked and recorded when they read a report demonstrating the relationship between the greenhouse effect and global climate…

Phylogenetic trees, such as the "Tree of Life," are commonly found in biology textbooks and are often used in teaching. Because students often struggle to understand these diagrams, I developed a simple, inexpensive classroom model. Made of pipe cleaners, it is easily manipulated to rotate branches, compare topologies, map complete lineages,…

Visual literacy, the ability to interpret and create external representations (ERs), is essential to success in biochemistry. Studies have been conducted that describe students' abilities to use and interpret specific types of ERs. However, a framework for describing ERs derived through a naturalistic inquiry of biochemistry classrooms has not…

The purpose of this study was to examine the changes in 19 preservice chemistry teachers' understandings of the structure of matter, including the aspects of the physical states of matter, the physical composition of matter, and the chemical composition of matter, before, immediately after, and months after they received a specific instruction.…

The National Science Education Standards prescribe that an understanding of the importance of classifying organisms be one component of a student's educational experience in the life sciences. The use of a classification scheme to identify organisms is one way of addressing this goal. We describe Conifer ID, a computer application that assists…

Middle school teachers tend to rely heavily on texts that have become increasing more visual. There is little information available about the graphical demands of general middle grades' science texts. The purpose of this study was to quantify the type and quality of the graphical representations and how they interacted with the textual material in…