This meta-analysis, spanning 5 decades of Draw-A-Scientist studies, examined U.S. children's gender-science stereotypes linking science with men. These stereotypes should have weakened over time because women's representation in science has risen substantially in the United States, and mass media increasingly depict female scientists. Based on 78…

This dissertation characterized trainings designed to prepare citizen scientists to collect ecological data in natural outdoor settings. Citizen scientists are volunteers who participate in scientific activities under the guidance of professional scientists and organizations. The work of citizen scientists greatly expands the data collection…

What is "productive giftedness" and why does it matter in talent development? Using the Productive Giftedness Model, the current study examines key environmental and psychosocial factors that influence productive outcomes (e.g., achievements, accomplishments, leadership, eminence). Defined as mastery and excellence, the "productive…

Taking place within the Science Through Technology-Enhanced Play (STEP) design-based research project, this paper describes how first- and second-grade students use their bodies to imaginatively become microscopic particles inside of a collaborative simulation of state change (e.g., liquid to gas) and within two distinct play spaces: a…

The purpose of this forum paper is to address how conceptions of "success" in STEM education are culturally informed, and how supporting students in achieving success goes beyond normative definitions of academic achievement. Furthermore, the imposition of success from the dominant culture may be limited in scope with culturally diverse…

"MyScience" is a primary science education initiative in which being in a community of practice (CoP) is integral to the learning process. Stakeholder groups--primary teachers, primary students and scientist mentors--interact around the CoP "domain" of investigating scientifically and learn from each other "through…

It has long been argued that nature of science (NOS) is an important part of science teaching. In the literature, many different approaches to NOS have been suggested. This article focuses on a storytelling approach, and builds on data from audio recordings from three middle-school (school year 6) classrooms. The three science classes are run by…

Multi-authoring has been gaining popularity since the foundation of academic publishers. Today we observe a global trend in favor of multi-authoring. On the other hand, in certain domains, such as CERN collaborations in physics, multi-authoring has a different connotation than other domains. The number of co-authors may be above 5000, an all-time…

The purpose of this article is to outline the evolution of biology education in Soviet schools in the 1920s and 1930s. After some introductory consideration of the ideological changes taking place in the field of genetics that impacted on the teaching of science and led to botany being favoured over biology in schools, the first part outlines the…

We present an instructional approach to incorporate into biology lessons an exchange of videos between international practicing scientists and secondary-school students. We validated the approach in German school settings in three curricular contexts: genetics, cell biology, and immunology. The participating students (n = 255) were native speakers…

Like other Canadians, the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) members are alarmed by the existential threat that climate change represents to the world. They believe leadership from Canadian governments is crucial along with meaningful changes from institutions and individual efforts. The post-secondary education (PSE) sector has a…

Recent calls in education have emphasized the critical need for curricula in the sciences to support student development of the general and disciplinary-specific practices that are relevant to modern scientific research and careers, as well as foundational scientific knowledge that reflects recent advances. In this regard, the life sciences,…

Animal biology is fascinating for its incredible diversity in life strategies. These strategies amaze scientists and can also fire the enthusiasm of science students. One group of animals impressive in this way is the phylum "Cnidaria," containing some 10,000 invertebrate species that include jellyfish, corals, sea anemones, hydroids,…

British scientist John Dalton (1766-1844), French scientist Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (1778-1850), and Italian scientist Amedeo Avogadro (1776-1856) are familiar to many chemistry students. Such students may understand the importance of Dalton's atomic theory, model how Gay-Lussac's law relates the pressure and the temperature of a gas, and use…

Clair J. Sullivan is an assistant professor in the Department of Nuclear, Plasma and Radiological Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Her research interests include radiation detection and measurements; gamma-ray spectroscopy; automated isotope identification algorithms; nuclear forensics; nuclear security;…