To investigate students' interest in physics, this study explores the impact of a brief teaching intervention on the increase of interest. The intervention focused on modern physics, specifically exploring Einstein's theory of gravity and the dual nature of light. A total of 325 Greek students participated in the survey, comprising 83 students in…

The natural sciences, by their very nature, are based on the exploration of the physical world, and digital mobile devices are considered appropriate to support this exploration (Suárez et al., 2018) since they offer the tools that make this investigation more accessible but also ubiquitous (Crompton et al., 2017). Inquiry-based learning is a…

This paper presents an intervention aiming to promote students' learning by enhancing their interest in the concept of energy. Junior high school students' learning and interest is evaluated after engaging in activities on work and energy. The intervention integrated hands-on and simulated experiments included a structured series of guided…

According to the Next Generation Science Standards, science instructional materials can be efficient as long as they integrate three dimensions: science and engineering practices, crosscutting concepts and disciplinary core ideas. However, research investigating the integration of these three dimensions in the content of school science textbooks…

This paper introduces 'Integrative Drama-Inquiry Learning' (IDI), merging drama-based learning with inquiry-based learning in order to exemplify teaching science through drama. The study also reports on the findings of a sequential mixed-methods procedure embedded in a quasi-experimental research design aimed to understand the effects of IDI on…

It has been argued that students' understanding of science ideas and concepts is based on their engagement in science and engineering practices. However, research studying science and engineering practices engaging in the content of school science textbooks is particularly limited. The aim of the present study is to develop a framework and…

This paper studies Greek junior high school students' alternative ideas, both initial and synthetic, on geodynamic phenomena. It comments in detail on students' concepts on Earth structure, earthquake occurrence, volcano formation, and relief change. Additionally, it attempts to trace and interpret how and why these ideas form (concept…

The health education program entitled "Show me your genes and I will tell you who you are" was implemented in a Junior High School in Greece in order to help the participating students get acquainted with basic genetics concepts as well as the procedures and implications of genetic testing. This article presents the stories that were…

During the COVID-19 outbreak, the imposition of home restriction or quarantine led to the use of emergency remote teaching for education purposes. Adolescent students faced a challenge while trying to maintain a school experience and receive reliable information about the pandemic. This study presents the results for students' perceptions of…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the application of the model of the "flipped classroom" as a complementary method to school distance education in junior high school Biology. The "flipped classroom" model attempts a different way of organizing the educational process according to which the traditional methods of…

This study presents the features and measured effects of an extra-curriculum program called "4thlabs: science magazine" which targets the promotion of important soft skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, communication and collaboration in high school students. Program's main features include project-based learning and the…

In this study, students' understanding of chemical changes was investigated in relation to four individual differences, related to logical thinking, field dependence/independence, convergence and divergence thinking. The study took place in Greece with the participation of students (n = 374) from three grades (8th, 10th and 12th grades) of…

The current study aims to investigate students' representations of the atomic structure in a number of student cohorts with specific characteristics concerning age, grade, class curriculum and some individual differences, such as formal reasoning and field dependence/independence. Two specific task contexts, which were designed in accordance with…

This paper reports on a mixed-methods study with high school students. The study focused on the reasons they give with regard to "what they find interesting about their physics lesson" and "what makes them want to study their physics lesson" during a school year. The sample consisted of 219 students, who attended public high…

We report on our experience with the implementation of project-based teamwork on nuclear energy with 14 ninth-grade students from a lower secondary model school and its assessment using two written questionnaires, which were answered by the students after the completion of the project. The first questionnaire elicited students' opinions about the…