This essay offers a rationale for deploying ecofeminist science fiction stories as object-oriented thought experiments in science and environmental education, with particular reference to developments in genetics and evolutionary biology, and their implications for human (and more-than-human) reproduction and kinship in the period following the…

Ecologically, lichen plays a significant role in the formation of flourishing ecosystems by breaking apart rock formations using small fungal threads to form fertile soil which supports a growing complexity/diversity of life. This essay uses lichen as a metaphor to describe fossilized constructs (colonial epistemologies and ontologies,…

Ecosystems, interacting systems of biotic and abiotic factors, are a fascinating topic in life science. The "Next Generation Science Standards" (NGSS Lead States 2013) recognize "Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics" (HS-LS2) as one of four overarching ideas in life science that students should understand. Student…

Social media platforms and other internet sites may propagate inaccurate or misleading information. This misinformation encourages speculation, rumors, and mistrust in established science. In the current study, we attempted to determine whether biology and environmental science students at a small college are able to transfer their critical…

This interdisciplinary study examines faculty members' various understandings of writing pedagogies across the curriculum to foster global citizens from the perspective of "soka," or value creation. Broadly, value-creating global citizenship pedagogy develops students' skills and knowledge for the purpose of socioecological good.…

Understanding the nature of science has long been a focus of science education reform efforts, including the Next Generation of Science Standards. Students' views about the process of how scientific knowledge is acquired has been shown to affect their ability to learn scientific concepts. Integrating the nature of science into science lesson plans…

Groundwater contamination is a serious environmental problem, given that all living things depend on this essential resource. Groundwater represents less than 1% of all water found on Earth, but nearly 90% of the freshwater used comes from groundwater (USGS 2016). The problem-based activity described in this article actively engages students in…

Employability is a key issue for students and Higher Education Institutions and a key component of employability is possessing the skills a role requires. In the environmental sciences, fieldwork provides an opportunity for students to develop employability-enhancing technical and transferable skills. However, students can have difficulty…

Background: This investigation was designed to uncover the relations between students' cognitive and metacognitive strategies used during a complex climate simulation. While cognitive strategy use during science inquiry has been studied, the factors related to this strategy use, such as concurrent metacognition, prior knowledge, and prior…

This article describes the kindergarten unit on environmental awareness, "Who Wants to Live and Grow in a Garbage Dump?," which integrated life science, health and nutrition concepts, and relationships around the topic of "soil." Science Technology Education and Mathematics (STEM) activities used in the lesson plans were…

Residential field courses are important and should be designed and delivered to maximize their value to students, staff and institutions. In this context, we use a novel approach involving analysis of the daily affective and conative reflections of students immersed in the field course experience to better understand student engagement with…

This study reports on targeted science courses for undergraduate childhood education majors. We describe an inquiry-oriented, three-course sequence spanning physical, life, and environmental science. All three courses are hands-on and are designed to reflect the content and pedagogy most important to future elementary school teachers.

The objectives of this study were to (a) determine preservice educators' perceptions of forest health, (b) define the experiences which may have influenced their understanding, and (c) identify the approaches they might use to convey forest health information. Twelve interviews were conducted with preservice science and agriculture education…

This study investigated newspaper coverage of Florida red tide blooms in four metropolitan areas of Southwest Florida during a 25-year period, 1987-2012. We focused on how journalists framed red tide stories with respect to environmental risk, health risk, and economic risk. We determined risk to be a key factor in this news coverage, being an…

This study was part of a multi-year project on the development of elementary students' modeling approaches to understanding the life sciences. Twenty-three first grade students conducted a series of coordinated observations and investigations on decomposition, a topic that is rarely addressed in the early grades. The instruction included…