Diffusion is a critical component of the Physiology Core Concept of flow down gradients and is fundamental to understanding how ions, gases, or signaling molecules travel short distances in the body. When asked about diffusion, students often reason successfully using the "things move from areas of high to low concentration" heuristic…

When engineering students are unable to evaluate the validity of their solutions, they are unprepared to solve complex, real-world engineering problems that require decomposition or knowledge transfer. A proper framework is key to successful implementation and can encourage more institutions to adopt problem-solving engineering labs. This paper…

Pedigree problems are typical genetics tasks in schools. They are well suited to help students learn scientific reasoning, representing realistic genetic problems. However, pedigree problems also pose complex requirements, especially for secondary students. They require a suitable solution strategy and technical knowledge. In this study, we…

Organic reaction mechanisms lie at the heart of developing an understanding of how the molecular world functions. However, many students simply try to memorize mechanisms, or use their knowledge of the reagent and product to create a mechanism that "works". This is not helped by the content-heavy organic chemistry curriculum which…

The current study aims to contribute to the literature on how organic chemistry students weigh various factors when predicting products of substitution and elimination reactions. This study focuses specifically on these mechanism types, as they are often the first instances where students must consider the "how" and the "why"…

This study investigates the performance of GPT-4, an advanced AI model developed by OpenAI, on the force concept inventory (FCI) to evaluate its accuracy, reasoning patterns, and the occurrence of false positives and false negatives. GPT-4 was tasked with answering the FCI questions across multiple sessions. Key findings include GPT-4's…

This study explores the impact of robotics activities on the creativity and problem-solving performances of secondary school students. The participants consisted of 10 students from a computer science class at a secondary school. The robotics activities utilized Lego Ev3 kits and incorporated reverse engineering principles. Data were gathered…

Researchers and educators have been exploring systems thinking (ST) in chemistry education to better equip citizens for 21st century challenges; however, little is known about students' perspectives and experiences. In this study, we investigated students' perspectives of ST and their experiences with ST activities. We designed and implemented a…

Reform documents advocate for innovative pedagogical strategies to enhance student learning. A key innovation is the integration of science and engineering practices through engineering design (ED)-based physics laboratory tasks, where students tackle engineering design problems by applying physics principles. While this approach has its benefits,…

Balancing disciplinary knowledge and practical reasoning in problem solving is needed for meaningful learning. In STEM problem solving, science subject matter with associated practices often appears distant to learners due to its abstract nature. Consequently, learners experience difficulties making meaningful connections between science and their…

In upper-secondary chemistry education, the concept of 'Amount of Substance' occupies a central position within the computation framework. However, comprehending this concept often poses a challenge for students. To address this issue, our study aimed to design and implement a computation skills test to assess the varying levels of students'…

A common task when problem solving in quantum mechanics, including in a spins-first curriculum, involves changing the basis of a given state. Our research in undergraduate quantum mechanics courses at three institutions explores student thinking about basis, basis expansion coefficients, and change of basis in the context of spin-½ systems. Our…

The purpose of this study was to quantitatively assess the integration of computational thinking with learning about biological evolution. Specifically, we investigated the effectiveness of a framework from a recently developed learning progression that emphasises the complex nature of teaching both computational thinking and biological evolution.…

The aim of this study was to develop students' chemical literacy by integrating dilemma stories into a Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) project on petroleum. Chemical literacy can help students face future challenges by applying what they learn about chemistry subjects at school to solve problems in their daily…

Research on active learning that emphasises question formulation activities has received less attention. This study was conducted to address the said gap identified in the literature by testing the thinking empowerment by questioning (TEQ) strategy on the level of conceptual understanding (CK) and critical thinking (CT) of students in Biology…