This research aims to develop students' scientific process and innovative thinking skills using digital activities in distance and face-to-face education. A total of 12 sixth-grade students in a primary school participated in the study. The research was action research. The analysis was carried out in the "Transmission of Electricity"…

The aims of teaching have evolved along with the society in which we live, from a teaching based in memory to a one that teaches to reason, in order to adapt to the accelerated rate of change imposed by the application of scientific discoveries in our society. We have a society in continuous learning, which requires the ability to reason in order…

The goal of this study is to present and evaluate a different way of teaching concepts related to the reflection of light (incident beam, reflecting beam, angle of incidence, angle of reflection, surface, regular reflection, and diffuse reflection). The participants were 42 sixth-grade students (between the ages of 11 and 12) attending a public…

An astronomy "experiment" composed of three parts is described in the article. Being given necessary data a simple model of inner planets of the solar system is made in the first part with planets' circular orbits using appropriate scale. In the second part revolution of the figurines used as model representations of the planets along…

With the increased focus on both inquiry and 21st-century skills such as collaboration and problem-solving, teachers at all levels are looking for engaging ways to create more student-centered classrooms in which students can learn more than "just" science content. Discovering and developing creative science activities designed to accomplish…

Compost bins are beginning to make their way into home gardens and classrooms, allowing students to actively participate in greening their environment. However, do they really understand the process of composting? According to the "National Science Education Standards" (National Research Council [NRC] 1996, 20), "Learning science is something…

The authors developed a demonstration with two similar setups that provide students with both the prior experience to form an expectation and the discrepancy to grab their attention. They follow the demonstration with a structured exploration format that gives students a method for experimenting to find the one built-in difference (i.e., the…

Biology teachers know how important it is for them and for their students to engage first-hand with nature. Ideally, bringing students to fields, woodlands, and wetlands to observe, explore, and wonder is the best way to stimulate curiosity and practice scientific inquiry. However, for many reasons, field excursions are not always practical or…

Imagine recreating a tsunami's force in a bathtub or exploring the potential of geothermal energy by using steam from a kettle to illuminate a light bulb. These types of activities and more are offered in Matthew Levy and Mario Salvadori's collection of experiments and demonstrations in Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Tsunamis. More than 30 easy and…

With archaeologists continually finding new pieces of the past, students will undoubtedly see and hear of new discoveries in the media. By using archaeology as a context for investigating past cultures and using science methods, teachers can capitalize on students' interests while still addressing concepts recommended (or required) for their…

Early adolescents may lack the cognitive and metacognitive skills necessary for effective inquiry learning. In particular, they are likely to have a nonnormative mental model of multivariable causality in which effects of individual variables are neither additive nor consistent. Described here is a software-based intervention designed to…