This paper presents empirical evidence from research carried out in New Zealand by a research-practice partnership (RPP) that included school teachers, teacher professional learning providers, and researchers in science education, technology education, and information systems. The RPP worked together from 2018-2023 to investigate the affordances…

Authentic, "messy data" contain variability that comes from many sources, such as natural variation in nature, chance occurrences during research, and human error. It is this messiness that both deters potential users of authentic data and gives data the power to create unique learning opportunities that reveal the nature of science…

Previous to this study, teaching and learning practices in the first-grade classroom of study were primarily teacher and content driven and did not reflect the student-driven inquiry process. The identified problem of practice for this action research study was the first-grade students in the teacher-researcher classroom did not demonstrate…

The purpose of this case study is to delve into the complexities of the early development of preservice chemistry teachers' science teaching orientations, knowledge of learners, knowledge of instructional strategies, and knowledge of assessment during a two-semester intervention designed to enhance their pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for…

Many students enter high school with some science knowledge and experience doing investigations but often know little about the nature of science (NOS) or how the knowledge is developed (i.e., science practices). As science teachers, we need to get students excited about science as quickly as possible with activities that introduce the practices…

This is an interpretive case study to examine the teaching of an experienced science faculty who had a strong interest in teaching undergraduate and graduate science courses and nature of science specifically. It was interested in how he transformed knowledge from his experience as a scientist and his ideas about nature of science into forms…

In a 4-h laboratory exercise, students accomplish a series of enzymatic macerations of apple mash, assess the viscosity of the mash during the maceration, extract the juice by centrifugation, and measure the levels of antioxidant phenols extracted into the juice after different enzyme treatments. The exercise shows the impact of enzyme-catalyzed…

A low-cost experiment to carry out the second-order reversible reaction of acetic acid esterification with ethanol to produce ethyl acetate is presented to illustrate concepts of kinetics and reactor modeling. The reaction is performed in a batch reactor, and the acetic acid concentration is measured by acid-base titration versus time. The…

We present a diagnostic question cluster (DQC) that assesses undergraduates' thinking about photosynthesis. This assessment tool is not designed to identify individual misconceptions. Rather, it is focused on students' abilities to apply basic concepts about photosynthesis by reasoning with a coordinated set of practices based on a few scientific…

The purpose of this case study was to investigate how pre-service chemistry teachers' science teaching orientations change during a two-semester intervention designed to enhance their pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for teaching the nature of science (NOS). Moreover, the way that pre-service chemistry teachers translated their change in…

This study focuses on the retrospective evaluation of collaborative mLearning (CmL) Science module for teaching secondary school science which was designed based on social constructivist learning theories and Merrill's First Principle of Instruction. This study is part of a developmental research in which computer-mediated communication (CMC)…

We describe how we use boiling-point trends of group IV-VII hydrides to introduce intermolecular forces in our first-year general chemistry classes. Starting with the idea that molecules in the liquid state are held together by some kind of force that must be overcome for boiling to take place, students use data analysis and critical reasoning to…

Students have problems with understanding, using and interpreting graphs. In order to improve the students' skills for working with graphs, we propose Manual Video Measurement (MVM). In this paper, the MVM method is explained and its accuracy is tested. The comparison with the standardized video data software shows that its accuracy is comparable…

We report our study of chemistry graduate students' beliefs regarding the normative values of their disciplines and their perceptions of the ethical challenges they face as students, teachers, and scientific researchers. Using a phenomenographical lens, we interviewed seven graduate students who had achieved Ph.D. candidacy and at least 3 full…

This pedagogical activity is aimed at students using a computer-learning environment with advanced tools for data analysis. It investigates the relationship between the coefficient of restitution and the way the heights of different bouncing balls decrease in a number of bounces with time. The time between successive ball bounces, or…