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…

This study examined the perceptions of 6th grade middle school students regarding physics and physics-related careers. The overarching goal of this work was to understand similarities and differences between girls' and boys' perceptions surrounding physics and physics-related careers as part of a long-term effort to increase female interest and…

The study identified the different cultural concepts that secondary school students' believe in and determined the belief and idea of students about the cultural concepts. It also investigated students' source of information about the cultural concepts and determined the influence of these cultural believes on students' academic performance in…

The aim of this study was to explore physics teachers' ramification of theory and practices as a result of physics content and pedagogical changes in the Further Education and Training (FET) phase. The researchers adopted the mixed method research approach. The quantitative aspect involved 109 physics teachers and the qualitative approach used ten…

Games in science education is emerging as a popular topic of scholarly inquiry. The National Research Council recently published a report detailing a research agenda for games and science education entitled "Learning Science Through Computer Games and Simulations" (2011). The report recommends moving beyond typical proof-of-concept…

As part of its National Science and Engineering Week activities in 2009 and 2010, the University of Reading organised two open days for 60 local key stage 4 pupils. The theme of both open days was "How do we predict weather and climate?" Making use of the students' familiarity with weather and climate, several concepts of relevance to secondary…