This study analyzed the comprehension strategies and visuals in two science textbook series for grades 6, 7, and 8 as means of better understanding a core element of the ecological component of science literacy. The iScience [Biggs et al. in iScience (Grade 6), McGraw-Hill, 2015a, iScience (Grade 7), McGraw-Hill, 2015b, iScience (Grade 7),…

This paper describes the construct of fascination in science, a non-cognitive trait combining interest, curiosity, and mastery skills, and the particular relevance of fascination in science for students during middle school. Grounded in the theory of "Science Learning Activation" and employing data from the longitudinal Activated…

How do teachers elicit and sustain students' interest and engagement in science lessons? This paper answers this question in the context of Bhutan, where students' performance in science is low compared to other subjects, and where falling levels of interest in science are a concern. Like other countries in the Global South, a large proportion of…

With the implementation of Next Generation Science Standards, educators shifted from lecturer to facilitator using inquiry-based learning approaches. Teachers may express anxiety about this role reversal in providing scientific instruction. This study addressed conflicting perspectives in the implementation of inquiry-based learning approaches as…

The aim of this study is to conduct a meta-analysis study to examine the effectiveness of the argumentation-based teaching method in terms of sample, subject, years and some variables (academic success, attitude, interest, etc.). Meta-analysis method was used in this study. In order to gather the studies included in meta-analysis, various sources…

This research with middle school students from Kentucky (KY) and Nevada (NV) provides a snapshot of students' spatial-scientific understandings as we explored how well students understand lunar-related content, both spatially and scientifically, after receiving instruction with similar curricular Earth-Space content. Utilizing a lens of spatial…

Project-based learning (PjBL) instruction is an inquiry-based method that is beneficial to student achievement and their exploration of 21st-century learning skills, but there is a gap in the literature about how Grades 6 to 8 teachers feel about PjBL and its implementation. The research problem was science teachers in the United States were not…

The aim of this study is to determine the students' misconceptions about the digestive system. In this quantitative research, the study group comprised totally 259 sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade students. The data were collected through a three-tier diagnostic test and analyzed in terms of scientific knowledge, the lucky guess, lack of…

This study was designed to identify the impact of virtual reality (VR) and the virtual reality learning environment (VRLE) on the assessment outcomes of students in a middle school life sciences unit of study. The experiment was a quantitative 2 x 3 repeated measure mixed group quasi-experimental design with three variables. The two independent…

Energy is a central concept across the sciences and an important goal of science education is to support all students so that they develop a full understanding of the energy concept. However, given the abstract and complex nature of the energy concept, only a few students develop an understanding so that they can use energy ideas to make sense of…

The aim of this study is to examine how the nature of science dimensions are represented in the secondary school 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade science textbooks of the last twenty years. It is also within the scope of the research to investigate how these dimensions in the textbooks changed during the twenty years. The document analysis method was…

Ocean currents play an important role in regulating the Earth's climate by redistributing ocean heat around the planet. One important climate phenomenon that includes several large ocean currents is the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, which is the process of warm surface currents in the North Atlantic Ocean moving to the Arctic to…

This study examines what science teachers think about Sustainable Development and its' Goals, how they integrate SDGs into their science lessons, and how the COVID-19 pandemic affects their thoughts about Sustainable Development. The study group was selected by convenience sampling from 51 middle schools in the central district of one of the big…

This study examined the reciprocal relationship between students' perceptions of science learning environment, measured through promoting choice, interaction and mutual respect, and teacher feedback, and students' achievement goals of mastery-approach and performance-approach goals. A total of 407 sixth and eighth grade students participated in…

The COVID-19 outbreak had massive impacts in many areas, including education, all over the world. This pandemic forced education systems to make an emergency shift to remote teaching. The Turkish education system was affected by the pandemic, and all schools were forced to shut down in March 2020. Approximately 18 million students in Türkiye…