Physical and virtual labs have unique capabilities that can influence how students learn from them. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of physical and virtual manipulatives on students' learning of heat and temperature and to examine the influence of various combinations of physical and virtual manipulatives. A total of 205…

Science is one of the most important subjects for students at all educational levels. To promote engagement, hands-on experiments can provide a 'realistic and exciting experience of the content' (Holstermann, Grube and Bögeholz, 2010: 744) and hopefully facilitate motivation. In this article, George Stylos and Konstantinos T. Kotsis present four…

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…

Pupils often find the concepts of heat and temperature difficult to understand and differentiate. The authors believe that an image-to-writing approach can help pupils learn these two abstract concepts -- an approach that uses a series of guided enquiry activities involving heat and temperature. The basic premise is that pupils produce images to…

Science teachers often use visual images to help students visualise the abstract concepts of science. Yet, they may not support students in making sense of these visual representations, wrongly assuming that the students can intuitively do it on their own. Pre- and in-service teacher professional development programmes also seldom explicitly teach…

The spread of COVID-19 has caused a high demand for online learning or self-learning at home. We focus on evaluating which media is most suitable for self-learning for the third graders. For effective assessment of children's learning, the study adopted AEIOU: Awareness; Enjoyment; Interest; Opinion formation; and Understanding as the evaluation…

This study focuses on investigating how students make use of their bodily experiences in combination with infrared (IR) cameras, as a way to make meaning in learning about heat, temperature, and friction. A class of 20 primary students (age 7-8 years), divided into three groups, took part in three IR camera laboratory experiments. The qualitative…

The purpose of this research was to compare the effect of conceptual change texts enriched with metaconceptual processes with the effect of refutational and expository texts on pre-service science teachers' conceptual understanding of heat and temperature. The durability of the effect of the texts on pre-service science teachers' conceptual…

The purpose of this study was to explore how examples used in teaching may influence elementary school students' conceptions of evaporation and boiling. To this end, the examples traditionally used to explain evaporation and boiling in Korean 4th grade science textbooks were analyzed. The functions of these published examples were explanation…

This study examines the existing knowledge that pre-service elementary teachers (PSETs) have regarding heat energy, heat transfer and insulation. The PSETs' knowledge of heat energy was initially assessed by using an activity: determining which container would be best to keep hot water warm for the longest period of time. Results showed that PSETs…

Research has demonstrated that many students and some teachers do not consistently apply the conservation of energy principle when analyzing mechanical scenarios. In observing elementary and secondary teachers engaged in learning activities that require tracking and conserving energy, we find that challenges to energy conservation often arise in…

Discusses some of the misconceptions school children may have in their study of heat and temperature and attempts to clarify the concepts of temperature and to contrast it with the use of the term heat. The choice of gas thermometers as the standard temperature scale is also discussed. (HM)

Investigates the development of the concept of heat by children aged four to nine. Analysis revealed 11 thought patterns classified into six categories underlying children's concept of heat. These categories are related to scientific knowledge of the physics of heat. (HM)

The Learning in Science Project (Primary)--LISP(P)--investigated the ideas and interests children have about hot and cold. Data were obtained from 25 children (12 boys and 13 girls), ages 8 to 11, using the "interview-about-instances" (IAI) procedure. Areas investigated included: (1) the meanings of the words…

This unit consists of four parts. Part 1 contains a five-item instrument designed to help teachers clarify their own views about "burning." Part 2 discusses scientists' views about burning and lists answers to the survey instrument presented in part 1. Part 3 contrasts scientists' views with children's views, using children's comments…