Electrochemistry plays a crucial role in our everyday lives. It allows us to power our phones and cars and allows for the real-time monitoring of blood glucose levels. While electrochemistry is of vital importance and is a long-established field of chemistry, it is often neglected in modern curricula for STEM courses. Herein, we show that hands-on…

One of the main courses that have been affected by instructional technology is science education since the nature of topics covered by the science curriculum may require the usage of technology to teach them better. The aim of the current study was to investigate the effects of virtual laboratories on the development of gifted children's…

Hydrogel is an interesting topic in polymer chemistry, which is closely related to daily life and advanced technology. In this paper, we report an activity to deliver hydrogel chemistry into middle school classrooms by undergraduates as a bridge between professors and students. During the activity, undergraduates act as a bridge to receive…

Understanding experimental design (e.g. control of variable strategy or CVS) is foundational for scientific reasoning. Previous research has demonstrated that demonstrations with cognitive conflict (e.g. asking students to evaluate and explain different experimental designs) are effective in promoting children's scientific reasoning, however, the…

In this paper is presented a pilot study for the investigation of the relevant factors within some experimental works carried out by students, after going through the learning unit "Movement and rest", which can be found in the chapter "Principles and laws in classical mechanics", from the physics curriculum for the ninth grade…

It is widely recognized that we need to prepare students to think with data. This study investigates student interactions with digital data graphs and seeks to identify what might prompt them to shift toward using their graphs as thinking tools in the authentic activity of doing science. Drawing from video screencast data of three small groups…

Comprehensive curricula are described for middle and high school classrooms built around the synthesis of biodegradable calcium alginate capsules prepared from food-safe chemicals. Experiments and activities question whether calcium alginate capsules are a viable alternative to single-use water bottles and consider what characteristics are…

This study investigates the effectiveness of using a REACT strategy instruction enriched with guided inquiry-based experiments to improve 7th-grade students' understanding of mixtures compared to conventional teacher-centered instruction. A convergent parallel mixed-method design was used, and 39 middle school students were divided into…

Augmented reality (AR) has the potential to fundamentally transform science education by making learning of abstract science ideas tangible and engaging. However, little is known about how students interacted with AR technologies and how these interactions may affect learning performance in science laboratories. This study examined high school…

Virtual labs provide space for students to iteratively test, observe, and revise their understanding so as to improve their scientific literacy. However, one of the challenges that students face is that they need to think and act like scientists so as to be sensitively alert to methodological flaws and various sources of error. This study thus…

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"…

Science diagrams are an integral part of science because they are an important means of conveying and visualizing abstract science content. In recent years, researchers have demonstrated the educational benefits of encouraging students to draw their own conceptual diagrams, rather than focusing on interpreting diagrams given to them. To help…

Inquiry-based learning can be an effective approach when students are provided with sufficient guidance. However, there is an ongoing debate among practitioners about the nature, type, and level of such guidance. This study investigated the effects on middle school students' (N = 116) conceptual knowledge and inquiry skills acquisition of…

When the thermal expansion of water is discussed in school or university lessons, functional relationships are often inferred without considering measurement uncertainties. Moreover, in some learning materials, the goal of experimentation and the experimental setup do not match. This creates the wrong picture of scientific practice. In this…

Physical experiments on real-world systems are proposed as a means to raise learning outcomes and Arduino microcontroller is highlighted as an appropriate tool to perform them. However, experimentation on a real system may encounter various barriers. Therefore, a learning environment was developed in order to perform Arduino experiments on digital…