A computational experiment aimed to create and systematically analyze models of simple cation hydrates is presented. The changes in the structure (bond distances and angles) and the electronic density distribution of the solvent and the thermodynamic parameters of the hydration process are calculated and compared with the experimental data. The…

Case studies are an effective way to help students understand how science works, and perhaps even more importantly, how science knowledge is constructed. Yet often when we teach the content of science, we overlook the nature of science (NOS), and in particular, how knowledge claims of science are justified (Abd-El-Khalick, Bell, and Lederman 1998;…

A straightforward and inexpensive laboratory experiment is presented that investigates the physiological stress response of zebrafish after a 5 degree C increase in water temperature. This experiment is designed for an undergraduate physiology lab and allows students to learn the scientific method and relevant laboratory techniques without causing…

This article presents the findings of an international collaborative investigation into preservice teachers' views on the nature of scientific knowledge development with respect to six elements: observations and inferences, tentativeness, scientific theories and laws, social and cultural embeddedness, creativity and imagination, and scientific…

Heterogeneous, gas-solid processes constitute an important class of catalytic reactions that play a key role in a variety of applications, such as industrial processing and environmental controls. Heterogeneous catalytic chemistry can be demonstrated in a simple heated flow reactor containing a fragment of the catalytic converter from a vehicular…

Teaching "scientific method" has long been a regular part of science education, and many curriculum standards call for it. But it has run into a variety of criticisms, which add up to the charge that it conveys an unrealistic and unappealing view of science. In this article, the authors discuss how science really works and provide different ways…

This study sought to identify prominent features of the nature of science (NOS) embedded in authentic scientific inquiry. Thirteen well-established scientists from different parts of the world, working in experimental or theoretical research, in both traditional fields such as astrophysics and rapidly growing research fields such as molecular…

The views on epistemology by philosophers of science are developed through an historical lens. Enabling students to develop a scientific mindset is complicated by student's views on the Nature of Science. Students need to appreciate the history of science and to contrast different frameworks. In order to do this, students have to be able to follow…

We apply several physical ideas to determine the steady temperature distribution in a medium moving with uniform velocity between two infinite parallel plates. We compute it in the coordinate frame moving with the medium by integration over the "past" to account for the influence of an infinite set of instantaneous point sources of heat in past…

Efficient glow-in-the-dark materials are usually difficult to synthesize and need complex experiments with long reaction times that are not appropriate for conventional lab teaching. Therefore, we describe a new experimental procedure that allows the production of one of the most efficient "glow-in-the-dark" materials (SrAl[subscript 2]O[subscript…

This paper discusses the impact of contemporary scientific knowledge on worldviews. The first three sections provide epistemological background for the arguments that follow. Sections 2 and 3 discuss the reliable part of science, specifically the characterization, scope and limits of the present scientific canon. Section 4 deals with the mode of…

Although the scientific inadequacy of Le Chatelier's principle has long been documented in the literature, the principle is still treated as a central concept of chemical equilibrium by textbook writers and teachers in many countries. In the past, researchers' interest has focused on student misconceptions about chemical equilibrium and has…

Given the impact of textbooks on learning, this study assesses the five most frequently used secondary school biology textbooks in Turkey to examine the nature and the quality of treatment given to the nature of science. A qualitative oriented approach was employed and ethnographic content analysis was used as the methodological framework for this…

Background: Problem-based learning (PBL) is a teaching approach working in cooperation with self-learning and involving research to solve real problems. The first law of thermodynamics states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, but that energy is conserved. Students had difficulty learning or misconceptions about this law. This study…

A 100 years-old formula that was given by J. J. Thomson recently found numerous applications in computational electrostatics and electromagnetics. Thomson himself never gave a proof for the formula; but a proof based on Differential Geometry was suggested by Jackson and later published by Pappas. Unfortunately, Differential Geometry, being a…