Incorporating inquiry-based learning in the college-level introductory biology laboratory is challenging because the labs serve the dual purpose of providing a hands-on opportunity to explore content while also emphasizing the development of scientific process skills. Time limitations and variations in student preparedness for college further…

Staff development is aimed at changing practice. Change creates conflict. Little work has been done to gain insight into the conflict that teachers experience in the implementation of staff development. This study examines conflict in a staff development project aimed at increasing teachers' knowledge and implementation of problem-based integrated…

The purpose of this study is to analyze the perceived thought processes of several students as they learn, and then attempt to solve problems about chemical equilibrium. Four tenth grade students in Taipei, Taiwan, were audiotaped as they individually attempted to solve problems. The problems were such that they required more than mere recall or…

The Space Exposed Experiment Developed for Students (SEEDS) Project offered science classes at the 5-12 and college levels the opportunity to conduct experiments involving tomato seeds that had been space-exposed over long periods of time. SEEDS kits were complete packages obtained from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for…

Eighteen high school science students were involved in a study to determine what attributes in the problem statement they need when representing a typical osmosis problem. In order to realize this goal students were asked to solve problems aloud and to explain their answers. Included as a part of the results are the attributes that the students…

This document focuses on evidence from problem solving case studies which indicate that analogy, extreme case analogies, and physical intuition can play an important role as forms of nonformal reasoning in scientific thinking. Two examples of nonformal reasoning are examined in greater detail from 10 case studies of "expert" problem solving.…

The 1982 Yearbook of the Association for the Education of Teachers in Science (AETS) is the second in a series of three AETS yearbooks in which Ralph Tyler's 1949 curriculum rationale is used to analyze science curriculum. This publication is focused on the secondary school science curriculum (the 1981 yearbook was concerned with teaching science…

Through everyday experience people acquire knowledge about how moving objects behave. For example, if a rock is thrown up into the air, it will fall back to earth. Research has shown that people's ideas about why moving objects behave as they do are often quite inconsistent with the principles of classical mechanics. In fact, many people hold a…

Students have well-formed but incorrect theories of simple motion. As children, they interpret many phenomena related to motion before encountering any formal science education. Since most adults have misconceptions, children's questions are not answered correctly, so the misconceptions persist. Thus, every science teacher must face the prospect…

Many elementary classroom science programs in North America have incorporated what is called design technology, design and technology, technology, technological problem-solving, and/or problem-solving through technology. Design technology involves designing and making products to meet some need, and is directly concerned with the individual's…

Gal'perin's instructional theory of problem solving is described. This theory of stage-by-stage formation of mental actions was chosen as a theoretical basis for the construction and evaluation of courses in higher education, particularly in science and technology. A Programme of Actions and Methods (PAM) for problem solving in science,…

Discusses the possibility of having chemistry students do their own computer programing that could then be used to solve problems in general chemistry. Describes such an effort at Eastern Washington University. Provides examples of some of the student programs and printouts. (TW)

Suggests a method for solving verbal problems in chemistry using a linguistic algorithm that is partly adapted from two artificial intelligence languages. Provides examples of problems solved using the mental concepts of translation, rotation, mirror image symmetry, superpositioning, disjoininng, and conjoining. (TW)

Reports on a study which examined the relationship between spatial ability and performance in organic chemistry. Results indicated that students with high spatial scores did significantly better on questions requiring problem solving skills, as well as on those requiring the mental manipulation of two-dimensional representations of a molecule. (TW)

Discusses the advantages of using content specific problem solving as a vehicle for undergraduate instruction in biology, and describes different software tools used to implement this model. The areas discussed include simulated laboratories, the construction of binary classification schemes using computer programs, and scientific writing using…