This paper reports the results of a study made on the impact of improved deployment of science technicians in the classroom could directly benefit students in practical science investigations. Science technicians are skilled individuals whose understanding of practical work is a valuable resource not being used of in support of students…

Every day, schools and communities across the U.S. identify millions of young children as "at risk"--especially those with a minority background, who live in poor neighborhoods or are learning English as a second language. FPG's Project U-STARS-PLUS (Using Science, Talents, and Abilities to Recognize Students-Promoting Learning for…

Preservice preparation courses for elementary teachers of science can provide opportunities to build pedagogical content knowledge. One common concern of preservice teachers is how to cope with a preplanned lesson that does not proceed as planned. Providing opportunities for preservice teachers to experience the unexpected actually immerses them…

Field instruction is a critical piece of undergraduate geoscience majors' education, and fieldwork remains a major part of the work of professional geologists. Despite the central importance of field education, there exists relatively little educational research exploring how students learn to solve problems in geological fieldwork. This study…

Although an understanding of radiometric dating is central to the preparation of every geologist, many students struggle with the concepts and mathematics of radioactive decay. Physical demonstrations and hands-on experiments can be used to good effect in addressing this teaching conundrum. Water, heat, and electrons all move or flow in response…

This paper presents a new environment for teaching practical work in AI subjects. The main purpose of this environment is to make AI techniques more appealing to students and to facilitate the use of the toolkits which are currently widely used in research and development. This new environment has a toolkit for developing and executing agents,…

Most academic science educators encourage teachers to provide their students with access to more authentic science activities. What can and do teachers say to increase students' interests in participating in opportunities to do real science? What are the discursive "resources" they draw on to introduce authentic science to students? The purpose of…

In response to pressures to integrate literacy and science learning, an observational, comparative analysis was conducted exploring the added value of blended science and literacy curricula over inquiry-oriented science curricula in two 2nd-grade classrooms (ages seven to eight). Data were collected over ten weeks by the research team, and…

This study examined the use of form and function analogy object boxes to teach second graders (n = 21) animal adaptations. The study used a pretest-posttest design to examine animal adaptation content learned through focused analogy activities as compared with reading and Internet searches for information about adaptations of animals followed by…

What would your students say if you told them they could lift you off the ground using a block and a board? Using a simple machine, they'll find out they can, and they'll learn about work, energy, and motion in the process! In addition, this integrated lesson gives students the opportunity to investigate variables while practicing measurement…

Have you ever heard of a Maglev train? Who would be crazy enough to think that exploring how a high-tech train little known in the United States works with a group of fourth-grade students would yield understandings about the properties of magnetism, force and motion, and inquiry science? Fortunately, the authors--a college methods professor and…

An experiment in chemical kinetics as part of our Discovery Chemistry curriculum is described. Discovery Chemistry is a pedagogical philosophy that makes the laboratory the key center of learning for students in their first two years of undergraduate instruction. Questions are posed in the pre-laboratory discussion and assessed using pooled…

In this experiment, organic chemistry students perform reactions between three naphthyl acetate derivatives and the diazonium salt Fast-Red TR, under basic conditions. The three naphthyl acetate derivatives used in this study are 2-naphthyl acetate (1a), 6-bromo-2-naphthyl acetate (1b) and 1,6-dibromo-2-naphthyl acetate (1c). The two-step, one-pot…

Curriculum materials designed to provide students with practice interpreting plotted evidence of global climate change were developed using graphs from the scientific literature and tested with one hundred urban high school students from a high-poverty school in a major northern city in the US. The graph interpretation lessons followed a…

The purposes of this study were to examine initial content knowledge about properties of air by three cohorts of undergraduate and master's students studying elementary education and to determine forms of reasoning used to explain air phenomena and the effect of an intervention on content knowledge. Subjects were assessed using a 14-question test…