This paper discusses the emergence of science education in the seventeenth century with the influences of Joseph Priestley on the Dissenting Academies. Primarily, this paper analyses Priestley's ideas from some of his letters to scientists during his time and his ideas from his books "Miscellaneous Observations Relating to Education"…

Background: Achieving science literacy requires learning disciplinary knowledge, science practices, and development of sophisticated epistemological beliefs about the nature of science and science knowledge. Although sophisticated epistemological beliefs about science are important for attaining science literacy, students' beliefs are difficult to…

In this article, we report on a three-pronged effort to create a hypothetical learning progression for quantification in science. First, we drew from history and philosophy of science to define the quantification competency and develop hypothetical levels of the learning progression. More specifically, the quantification competency refers to the…

As long has been known, there is no perfect way to teach science. This paper makes no claim to be the 'be-all and end-all' of science education. Rather it critically examines what we teach learners in science and what they learn and tries to offer suggestions that can help teachers to surmount the scholastic inadequacies they tend to encounter in…

The classical physics treatment of "Electromagnetic Induction" is based on Faraday's Law and Lorentz Force. This paper presents an alternative approach, based on Wilhelm Weber´s Fundamental Force Law of Electrodynamics. It covers mutual induction, self-induction, parallel and anti-parallel currents, and currents in the same and opposite…

The classic demonstration illustrating Lenz's law by dropping a magnet through a copper pipe is presented using household aluminum foil right out of the box. Then comes the surprise. The teacher presents an aluminum foil cylinder with a missing lengthwise slice (cut before class). Will the demonstration still work? Students are amazed at the…

Consider a chain of length L that hangs in a U shape with end A fixed to a rigid support and free end E released from rest starting from the same initial height (call it y = 0) as A. Figure 1 sketches the chain after end E has fallen a distance y. Points O and A are assumed to be close enough to each other and the chain flexible enough that the…

This manuscript presents a content analysis of 28 picture books from the Outstanding Science Trade Books recognized by the National Science Teachers Association in 2016. Drawing on the need for culturally relevant science instruction, the research investigated the portrayal of scientists in images (gender and racial background), the scientific…

The smartphone's ambient light sensor has been used in the literature to study different physical phenomena. For instance, Malus's law, which involves the polarized light, has been verified by using simultaneously the orientation and light sensors of a smartphone. The illuminance of point light sources has been characterized also using the light…

This paper describes a pictorial approach to Lenz's law that involves following four steps and drawing three pictures to determine the direction of the current induced by a changing magnetic flux. Lenz's law accompanies Faraday's law, stating that, for a closed conducting loop, the induced emf (electromotive force) created by a changing magnetic…

There has been growing criticism over the aims, methods, and contents of practical work in school science, particularly concerning their tendency to oversimplify the scientific practice with focus on the hypothesis-testing function of experiments. In this article, we offer a reading of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's scientific writings--particularly…

Enhancing students' understanding of aspects of the nature of science (NOS) recommended by the science education community is an important goal of science instruction. This can occur only when teachers are adequately prepared for teaching NOS. However, the science education community is still considering what is needed to enhance the efficiency of…

The experiment that we present in this paper explores the teaching of Galilean motion principles observed in different reference frames, in an astronomical context. All grade 10 students in a French high school (the lycée Condorcet, Val de Marne) participated in two successive teaching-learning sessions, designed within the theoretical framework…

Students at upper secondary and college level in many countries are introduced to quantum physics (QP) in a mostly mathless course. Research shows that addressing epistemological and philosophical aspects would be beneficial for novice students' conceptual understanding. However, physics teachers seldom address these nature of science (NOS)…

Science textbooks only present scientific facts that cause the textbooks to seem not to promote scientific reasoning. Science learning also becomes not in line with the nature of Science. Then, Science learning requires applying authentic Science as an approach. Adapted Primary Literature (APL) is assumed to be able to achieve this objective.…