In this article, the author offers a response to Mike Mueller's review of "Transforming Environmental Education: Making the Cultural and Environmental Commons the Focus of Educational Reform." Mueller's review, although limited in the way all reviews are limited, makes a genuine contribution by not imposing interpretations that reflect the…

The period between 1965 and 1975 encompasses important events associated with the peak of the youth movement in the 1960s and its demise in the 1970s. The period was an "age of complexity" according to Daniel Yankelovich, a social scientist hired by John D. Rockefeller 3rd's Youth Task Force to study the wave of protests that Rockefeller felt…

To address the low priority given to university-level outreach, the authors created an outreach program that makes it easy for scientists to connect with the public, while at the same time providing effective transfer of scientific research results to the public and the K-12 community. The result is a program called the Hot Science--Cool Talks…

Albert Einstein is the icon of scientific genius. His is one the most recognizable faces in the history of mankind. This paper takes a cursory look at the man who is commonly perceived to be the epitome of eccentricity. We manage to sum up his salient traits which are associated with his name. The traits are based on anecdotal evidence. This…

In this essay, the author, a Biomedical Sciences student at the University of Sheffield, presents an atypical way of addressing the question "What advice would you give to students starting your course?" by transcribing the much-evoked and revered Ten Commandments, the original guide to life, into advice for new and bewildered Biomedical…

Unlike so many other fields, the sciences tend to sort people early in their lives between insiders and everyone else. Those excluded early--or who eventually drift away from science--are rarely, if ever, welcomed back. As a result, scientific understanding, except for those who make it their career, atrophies over time. The sciences do not…

Teaching Opportunities for Partners in Science (TOPS) is an outreach program using volunteers (the "partners") for: 1) assisting teachers in grades K-8 with preparation and delivery of science and engineering (S&E) lessons in the classroom; 2) providing content knowledge to teachers when needed to teach quality science and…

This article critically examines the concept of gender mainstreaming and raises questions about a series of category slippages in debates and discussions. Some key concerns are the way in which women are constructed as a unified analytical category, and how gender equality is frequently reduced to issues of representation. It also critically…

During its brief twenty-five-year history, and under the close management of the central government, the postdoctoral training system in China has grown rapidly into a permanent element of the Chinese science and technology research system. Although designed to be attractive to elite Chinese Ph.D. talent both living abroad and in China, it turned…

The physical walls of a classroom have typically acted as the boundary of school science learning communities. The participants in these learning communities are the students and the teacher in individual classrooms. These participants contribute to scientific discourse about a specific content area under study. Scientific learning communities, on…

This article is the culmination of an extensive inquiry-focused interactive experience involving female middle school students and five university scientists, which demonstrated that middle school girls' perception of science and scientists can be successfully improved. The study exposed students to adult professional scientists over a period of a…

In this article, the author declares that if a student is able to discuss school math with family and friends just like one would a new movie, then that student has experienced meaningful math learning and teaching. With the support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the author is presently working in K-8 classrooms, offering…

The National Drug Sector Information Service is committed to supporting those who work to prevent or reduce the harm to individuals, families, communities and the nation caused by alcohol and other drugs. This paper describes a project to assist particular members of the alcohol and other drugs sector to improve quality and the transfer of…

Because scientific understanding of communicating family research to policymakers is incomplete, qualitative interviews were conducted with social scientists experienced in bridging the gulf between research and family policy. In keeping with the tenets of 2 communities and community dissonance theories, the underutilization of research in…

The present study explores the relationship between students' views of the nature of science (NOS) and their views of the nature of scientific measurement. A questionnaire with two-tier diagnostic multiple-choice items on both the NOS and measurement was administered to 179 first-year physics students with diverse school experiences. Students'…