Background: Nanotechnology, a multidisciplinary field with increasing societal importance, demands for an increase in research abilities and capacities. Yet, nanoscience and nanotechnology (NST) are largely inaccessible to K-12 students. This situation demands efforts in research towards bringing NST learning into K-12 classrooms. Purpose: The…

The conceptual change approach has been a prevalent theoretical foundation for comprehending students' acquisition of scientific knowledge. Despite its extensive use, only a limited number of studies have employed this framework to examine the effectiveness of game-based learning (GBL). The GBL was utilized to teach 101 middle school students…

Energy is a central concept across the sciences and an important goal of science education is to support all students so that they develop a full understanding of the energy concept. However, given the abstract and complex nature of the energy concept, only a few students develop an understanding so that they can use energy ideas to make sense of…

Persistence is an important part of student success--both in and out of school. To enhance persistence, we first need to assess it accurately. Digital games can be used as vehicles for measuring and enhancing persistence. The purpose of this study is to test the effects of (a) game-level characteristics (i.e., game mechanics and conceptual…

Persistence is an important part of student success--both in and out of school. To enhance persistence, we first need to assess it accurately. Digital games can be used as vehicles for measuring and enhancing persistence. The purpose of this study is to test the effects of (a) game-level characteristics (i.e., game mechanics and conceptual…

Despite holding wide-ranging experiences with constant velocity and non-zero acceleration, students wrestling with physical science concepts struggle to demarcate the two distinct characteristics of motion. In fact, this prior experience and loose familiarity with associated terminology often act as an obstacle toward a deep and robust…

Teaching and learning chemistry or science, in general, could be described as building upon learners' existing conceptions. In order to support individual conceptual development, teachers should create opportunities for students to become aware of their thoughts. As this is very demanding in chemistry classroom practice with twenty-five or more…

The goal of this research is to provide a rich set of connections between two fields: (i) Nanoscale science and technology (NST) and (ii) topics from a common middle school physics curriculum. NST is emerging as one of the most promising new fields of the 21st century, which is one of the many arguments for including NST topics in secondary…

This study investigates students' conceptions of the carbon cycle with regard to the components they believe to be relevant to the carbon cycle, how they interrelate these components, the ways in which they trace carbon atoms, and the different levels of biological organisation they consider when doing so. A total of 142 students aged 13-16 years…

In this study with 153 middle school students, we investigate the influence of the number of decimal places from the reading of a measurement device on students' decisions to change or keep an initial hypothesis about falling objects. Participants were divided into three groups, introduced to two experiments--the time it takes a free falling…

There is growing interest in the introduction of Einsteinian concepts of space, time, light and gravity across the entire school curriculum. We have developed an educational programme named 'Einstein-First', which focuses on teaching Einsteinian concepts by using simple models and analogies. To test the effectiveness of these models and analogies…

Teachers' experiences and attitudes play a critical role in outdoor education. In this study, we aim to explore how 5th-10th-grade (10-15 years-old students) teachers use the natural environment in their teaching practices, with special attention to the link to sustainable development (SD). In total, 42 in-service teachers were invited to…

Curriculum statements and textbooks are considered to be vital support tools for teachers, particularly during times of curriculum innovation. A recent change in South Africa was the controversial inclusion of evolution in the school curriculum, raising serious concerns amongst biology teachers regarding the adequacy of their content and…

This paper presents a revised learning progression for the energy concept and initial findings on diverse progressions among subgroups of sample students. The revised learning progression describes how students progress towards an understanding of the energy concept along two progress variables identified from previous studies--key ideas about…

It is important for students to learn concepts and using them for solving problems and further learning. Within this respect, the purpose of this study is to investigate students' abilities to apply science concepts that they have learned from Science-Technology-Society based approach or textbook oriented instruction. Current study is based on…