The Institute for Scientist & Engineer Educators (ISEE) is a national effort to improve STEM education and workforce development by transforming how the next generation of scientists and engineers teach and mentor. Housed at the University of California, Santa Cruz, ISEE is the legacy of the educational side of the Center for Adaptive Optics…

Future elementary school teachers often lack self-efficacy for teaching science and technology. They are particularly anxious about encouraging children to carry-out student-directed, open-ended scientific inquiry and/or technological design projects. Moreover, because this often also is the case with practising elementary school teachers, it is…

University earth science departments seeking to establish meaningful geoscience outreach programs often pursue large-scale, grant-funded programs. Although this type of outreach is highly successful, it is also extremely costly, and grant funding can be difficult to secure. Here, we present the Geoscience Education Outreach Program (GEOP), a…

Many teachers struggle with meeting the needs of their most talented science students. How can these gifted students be challenged and learn as fast as they are able, especially in a classroom with a wide variety of abilities and interest in science? Many excellent teachers have found the answers in differentiating instruction by adding the…

Inquiry-based, student-lead research may be a pinnacle of high school science education, and the implementation of inquiry themes at all grades is of profound importance. At The Beacon High School in New York City, all seniors, regardless of their scientific proclivity or interest, completed original science research projects as a graduation…

In response to a report from the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, President Obama issued a challenge to the U.S. education system to create more than 1,000 new STEM-focused schools, including 200 high schools. Inclusive STEM-focused high schools--which focus their efforts on females, minorities, and students who are…

In too many K-12 schools, notes Hoachlander, science, math, and technology are still taught in isolation from one another--and engineering is barely taught at all. Even when STEM content and skills are presented in an integrated fashion, they are rarely linked to the rest of the academic subjects or to real-world work in STEM fields. Hoachlander…

Physiology teaching-learning methods have passed through several changes over the years. The traditional model of education appears to be linked to the teacher, who resists the use of tools and methods designed to provide something different to the student, depriving the student of new things or even the motivation to realize the applicability of…

The mathematics curriculum leader plays an important role in leading the mathematics curriculum in primary schools. They experience successes and face challenges associated with this leadership role. The perceptions that 25 mathematics leaders held about the successes and challenges they experienced whilst participating in a school mathematics…

This description features a set of lively demonstrations and observations, including some group work, that illustrate features of Earth science such as the Earth's rotation, ocean currents, the formation and erosion of rocks, earthquakes and volcanoes. All were shown in a one-hour presentation to teachers and can readily be used in schools,…

When CLEAPSS, the organisation now well known as a source of advice on health and safety in school science, came into being, it was called the Consortium of Local Education Authorities for the Provision of Science Equipment (CLEAPSE). This short article describes the role of the Science Masters' Association in its creation and the contribution of…

The STEM Achievement in Baltimore Elementary Schools (SABES) program is a community partnership initiative that includes both in-school and afterschool STEM education for grades 3-5. It was designed to broaden participation and achievement in STEM education by bringing science and engineering to the lives of low-income urban elementary school…

This paper presents a simplified approach for the application of material efficiency metrics to linear and convergent synthesis plans encountered in organic synthesis courses. Computations are facilitated and automated using intuitively designed Microsoft Excel spreadsheets without invoking abstract mathematical formulas. The merits of this…

A seminal dialogue on evidence based practice (EBP) at the International Association of School Librarianship in 2001 encouraged a worldwide paradigm shift in school librarianship from rhetorical and advocacy defenses to evidential documentation. Ross Todd described EBP as evidence for practice, evidence in practice, and evidence of practice (Todd…

In this Reflection on Practice we propose a triple nexus of research, public engagement and teaching that could provide a new pathway for academic developers to enable greater engagement in learning and teaching issues from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) academics. We argue that the public engagement activities demanded…