Teaching about nature of science (NOS) within a science curriculum that is primarily concerned with developing scientific content continues to provide a challenge for teachers. This study of science lessons focuses on whether NOS is being incorporated implicitly or explicitly, and whether epistemic aspects (e.g. models, theories) and social…

This study aims to examine fifth grade students' level of associating daily life events with the subject "changes of state" in the science curriculum. Among the qualitative research methods, special case method was used in the study. Seven open-ended questions about the changing states of matter were used for data collection. These…

Matter can be described and explained in a number of ways, using models of increasing complexity depending on the intended audience. Under the current National Curriculum for England, the kinetic theory of matter is taught to 11- and 12-year-olds in secondary schools to explain the structure of solids, liquids and gases and their behaviour when…

Exothermic reactions can present safety hazards and there is a recognized need for reaction safety education at the undergraduate level. We present an experiment that illustrates the pitfall of direct scale-up of an exothermic reaction that can lead to thermal runaway. The iodide-catalyzed hydrogen peroxide decomposition reaction yields…

Center of mass (CM) is an important concept in physics, especially when studying extended bodies. For example, general motion of an extended body can be considered as the sum of the translational motion of the CM plus other types of motion about that CM. CM also can be regarded as a "balance point" so that a system supported at its CM…

Variations of a demonstration in which a sheet of paper or a bead is levitated in a grazing stream as from one's breath have been published in several sources. Even a massive ball can be deflected into the robust flow from a leaf blower. The attraction is surprising because it is often quite stable and seems to conflict with the familiar transient…

An important concept that is presented in the discussion of Newton's law of universal gravitation is that the gravitational effect external to a spherically symmetric mass distribution is the same as if all of the mass of the distribution were concentrated at the center. By integrating over ring elements of a spherical shell, we show that the…

The term "validity" is one of the most important and one of the most debated concepts in educational measurement. In this paper, I argue that various different approaches can all be viewed from an associational perspective. I also argue that our understanding will be enhanced by adopting some basic ideas of scientific reasoning to the…

Recommendations for teaching the nature of science (NOS) are grounded in a deficit view of students and/or the public--wherein people accept pseudoscientific claims, particularly about evolution, because they do not adequately understand what counts as being "scientific." Under the deficit view, correct views of science are defined by…

The magic flask, which is a kind of black box activity, builds an environment for science teachers to discuss nature of science in a formal or/and informal learning environment in the context of the history of science through an explicit-reflective approach. In the activity, the nature of science (NOS) aspects are explicitly addressed and…

Science, as enterprise and epistemology, has been politicized. This essay recounts one science teacher educator's perspective and experience on this politicization of science and describes the necessity for preservice and practicing teachers to understand the nature and process of science. The role of teachers in advocating for science is clearly…

In this study, it is expected to highlight some common illusions that can interfere with classroom teaching of physics at secondary school. Cases cited here surfaced as useful by-products while some experimental teaching sessions were being conducted with grades 10 and 11 students in three government schools in a suburb of Western province in Sri…

The CERN Beamline for Schools Competition gives high school students the opportunity to perform an experiment of their design using the T9 facility. Our team, 'Relatively Special', was fortunate enough to be joint winners of this global event and travel to CERN for a unique adventure. This paper gives an account of our story including the…

After seeing several reports in newspapers making claims about the cause of death after children had swallowed button batteries, a team of students decided to try to establish which (if any) claims were true. The findings were reported in the Schools Exhibition at the ASE Annual Conference 2018 in Liverpool and are shared in detail here. (A…

The paper investigates the trends of the Arabic research with the emphasis on the nature of science. Hence, a descriptive analytical approach, both qualitative and quantitative forms, was used to explore 42 online journals and articles. The research sample was defined by online journals and articles cover the question of the Nature of Science…