Creationists are becoming more active in Europe. We expect that European biology teachers will be more frequently challenged by students who introduce creationist misconceptions of evolutionary theory into the classroom. Moreover, research suggests that not all teachers are equally prepared to deal with them. To make biology teachers aware of what…

In this paper, we accurately estimate the ground-state energy and the atomic radius of the helium atom and a helium-like Hookean atom by employing the uncertainty principle in conjunction with the variational approach. We show that with the use of the uncertainty principle, electrons are found to be spread over a radial region, giving an electron…

The literature has revealed that many students encounter substantial difficulties in applying the first law of thermodynamics. For example, university students sometimes fail to recognize that heat and work are independent means of energy transfer. When discussing adiabatic processes for an ideal gas, few students can correctly refer to the…

In a first course of general relativity, it is usually quite difficult for students to grasp the concept of a geodesic. It is supposed to be straight (auto-parallel) and yet it "looks" curved. In these situations, it is very useful to have some explicit examples available which show the different behaviour of geodesics. In this paper, we present…

The aim of developing students' understanding of the nature of science [NOS] has been considered an important aspect of science education. However, the results of previous research indicate that students of various ages and even teachers possess both inaccurate and inappropriate views of the NOS. Such a failure has been explained by the view that…

The study investigates the relationship between general and context-specific conceptions of the nature of science (NOS). The categorization scheme by Osborne et al. (J Res Sci Teach 40:692-720, "2003") served as the theoretical framework of the study. In the category "nature of scientific knowledge", the certainty, development, simplicity,…

The purpose of the single case life history study was to understand a female science teacher's conceptions of the nature of science as explicit in her practice. While this paper highlights these understandings, an additional purpose is to give a detailed account of the process of creating a life history account through more than 13 in-depth…

It is shown how the time-dependent Schrodinger equation may be simply derived from the dynamical postulate of Feynman's path integral formulation of quantum mechanics and the Hamilton-Jacobi equation of classical mechanics. Schrodinger's own published derivations of quantum wave equations, the first of which was also based on the Hamilton-Jacobi…

An overarching epistemological goal of science is to develop a comprehensive, systematic, empirically grounded understanding of nature. Two obstacles stand in the way: (1) Nature is enormously complicated. (2) Findings are fallible: no matter how well established a conclusion is, it still might be wrong. To pursue this goal in light of the…

There is a continuing need for engaging inquiry-based laboratory experiences for advanced high school and undergraduate biology courses. The authors describe a guided-inquiry exercise investigating the pH-dependence of lactase enzyme that uses an inexpensive, wide-range buffering system, lactase dietary supplement, over-the-counter glucose test…

Science process skills are claimed to enable an individual to improve their own life visions and give a scientific view/literacy as a standard of their understanding about the nature of science. The main purpose of this study was to develop a test for measuring a valid, reliable and practical test for Science Process Skills (SPS) in secondary…

Responding to calls for an empirical glimpse into a socioscientific issues (SSI)-based curriculum that aims to promote democratic participation, enhance students' connections to science, and empower students for the betterment of society (Dos Santos, 2008; Sadler, Barab, & Scott, 2007; Tal & Kedmi, 2006; Fusco & Barton, 2001; Hodson, 2003), this…

A phylogenetics exercise is incorporated into the "Introduction to biocomputing" course, a junior-level course at Savannah State University. This exercise is designed to help students learn important concepts and practical skills in molecular phylogenetics through solving a real-world problem. In this application, students are required to identify…

This position paper addresses some enduring, as well as emerging issues, associated with the crucial question of benchmarking understandings about nature of science (NOS) for precollege science education. The question of benchmarking NOS understandings is revisited in light of the often cited, continuing debates among historians, philosophers, and…

The aim of this paper is to introduce a simple and low-cost experimental setup that can be used to study the eddy current brake, which considers the motion of a sliding magnet on an inclined conducting plane in terms of basic physical principles. We present a set of quantitative experiments performed to study the influence of the geometrical and…