This study aims to examine preschool teachers' earth and space science practices and the expected achievements of children in these practices. The research was conducted with a phenomenological pattern. Participants of the study consisted of 28 preschool teachers working in public schools and determined by the criterion sampling method, one of the…

Ventura, California's 2023 winter storm activity underscored the impact that runoff has on recreational water quality and public health. To examine public perception of stormwater runoff, coastal water quality, and community decision-making toward recreating in polluted water, an online survey of the Ventura River watershed community determined…

'A lack of prior knowledge in the other discipline' is often given by geoscience instructors to explain why students struggle to apply knowledge from other disciplines to the Earth. We examine this assumption by considering the disciplinary crossing of buoyancy (physics) to isostasy (geoscience). We investigate the teachers' perspective through…

Explaining phenomena associated with a system involves describing a system's structure and articulating the process through which the system's structure changes over time. This paper defines geo-sequential reasoning in the context of plate tectonics and uses it to analyse how students explain the geological processes that occur along convergent…

This paper examines the pedagogical integration of Virtual Microscopes (VMs) in Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs), to identify best practice and improve online pedagogy. It has captured the perspectives of 12 Health and Earth Science university teachers, through in-depth interviews, about the current integration of the VM in online teaching,…

Promoting a functional scientific literacy entails preparing people to effectively engage and make decisions regarding real-world socioscientfic issues (SSI) through consideration of the relevant products and processes of science, as well as social, cultural, environmental, and ethical factors. Students can develop a functional scientific literacy…

The epistemic components of science are included in instruction through the three-dimensional learning of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Students use the Science & Engineering Practices to engage the Disciplinary Core Ideas through the perspective of the Crosscutting Concepts. The NGSS focus on the epistemic aspects that all…

Experimentation is a contributing factor to the interest and meaningful learning of Science. In Geology and Earth Science, the effects of soil textures, settlements, and water-holding capacity are parameters for landslides in Barotac Viejo and other flooded areas. Landslides are triggered during heavy rainstorms, causing severe property damage and…

Through the Sediment, Ice, & Learning on the Tanana (SILT) project, a team of university scientists engaged two middle school student groups in testing innovative environmental research technologies to measure sediment flowing underneath river ice. The culturally responsive, place-based pilot program tests these technologies as a strategy to…

Many teacher educator preparation programs do not provide opportunities for preservice teachers (PSTs) to experience and examine the use of popular fiction as a connection point to science teaching. This study explores a unit designed to support PSTs in learning and applying core concepts and processes of literacy and science by leveraging a…

One of the major obstacles to the continuation of life on Earth is the global climate change. The fact that our nation is experiencing a minor impact from the global climate change does not change the reality that there is no problem. It is well recognized that the polar areas are the most impacted by the global climate change, or that the…

Water is one of Earth's fundamental natural systems. It is crucial to foster water literacy in today's global citizens, particularly through formal education. The purpose of this research, in parallel with a study focused on human dimensions of water systems (Mostacedo-Marasovic et al., in press), is to examine water-related K-12 standards for…

Modeling is a fundamental tool in the teaching and learning processes of life and earth sciences. It serves as an investigative instrument that enables students to test hypotheses and solve scientific problems. This paper presents the findings of a survey conducted among 96 Moroccan life and earth sciences teachers teaching students at the…

Undergraduate summer field programs are valuable experiences that can foster or reduce students' self-efficacy, an important factor in students' success and retention in geoscience. Growing research findings show that science field experiences can be hostile and unwelcoming to students with marginalized identities, which may negatively impact…

This paper describes how plate tectonics and rock genesis, two topics that are typically addressed separately in secondary Earth science classes, can be taught together as an integrated system. We define the TecRocks Reasoning Framework, developed to support student reasoning about rock formation situated in the context of plate tectonics. We also…