In this study, the primary goal was to enhance the knowledge and awareness of 4th-grade primary school students regarding global pandemic diseases and methods of safeguarding against worldwide epidemic diseases which are socio-scientific issues. To achieve this goal, two activity modules tailored for 4th-grade students were created. These…

Undergraduate biology education has changed over the past decade, incorporating an iterative and evidence-based approach. Many educational assessments have confirmed the effectiveness of integrating authentic research and open-ended inquiry into introductory biology courses, demonstrating a significant positive impact on students' learning and…

The global COVID-19 pandemic required science educators to rapidly redesign their courses to instruct, support, and motivate students in a new remote learning environment. This adjustment was particularly challenging for courses with a laboratory component, where beakers and pipettes were exchanged for computer screens and keyboards. We present…

There has been growing criticism over the aims, methods, and contents of practical work in school science, particularly concerning their tendency to oversimplify the scientific practice with focus on the hypothesis-testing function of experiments. In this article, we offer a reading of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's scientific writings--particularly…

An experiment which investigates the wettability of natural surfaces was developed for undergraduate students, which allows them to explore concepts of surface structure, wettability, superhydrophobic surfaces, and self-cleaning. The students choose their own samples of leaves and flowers present in their local environment, examine their surface…

A chemistry laboratory experiment using everyday items and readily available chemicals is described to introduce advanced high school students and undergraduate college students to porous polymer membranes. In a three-step manufacturing process, a membrane is produced at room temperature. The filtration principle of the membrane is then…

Several studies have showed the subsistence, even in students enrolled in scientific degree courses, of spontaneous ideas regarding the motion of bodies that conflict with Newton's laws. One of the causes is related to the intuitive preconceptions that students have about the role of friction as a force. In fact, in real world novices do not…

The dramatic decrease in the cost of sequencing a human genome is leading to an era in which a wide range of students will benefit from having an understanding of human genetic variation. Since over 90% of sequence variation between humans is in the form of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), a laboratory exercise has been devised in order to…

This study investigated (i) the effect of inquiry-oriented laboratory activities on preservice primary school teachers' (PPSTs) achievement in science process skills (SPS) and science teaching efficacy beliefs, and (ii) changes in groups' reflections of SPS in the laboratory reports as they engaged in the activities. There were 71 PPSTs enrolled…

Each fall at harvest time, young students in the authors' part of the Midwest visit apple orchards to learn more about the life cycle of plants. This tradition is one part of a larger unit centered on apples, integrating life science with language arts and social studies. The authors partnered with kindergarten teachers at several schools to…

Germinating a seed is presumably the first experiment made by a child in his life. So, it has an important place both in child's scientific experience and understanding. Despite the significance of the experiment, the literature indicates that students possess various misconceptions related to the concepts of seed and seed germination. So, it is…

This work documents the collaboration between the Physics department of the University of Calabria and some schools of the region in a project devoted to recovering disused instrumentation in school laboratories. The project has been conceived as a workplace experience for the students, i.e. a learning experience in a real work place. In Italy,…

A pair of galvo mirrors reflecting light from a laser pointer is suggested for use as a school demonstration of Lissajous figures. The device is small, cheap and easy to assemble. Combined with a two-channel waveform generator, a full spectrum of excellently stable Lissajous figures can be generated (concerning frequency ratio, amplitude ratio and…

Our investigation focusses on a group of eleven lower-middle-class students from classrooms in which the teachers did most of the talking and students rarely asked any questions. We have examined whether spontaneous discussions among the students in a less structured setting would include questioning, and what kinds of questions they might ask.…

The laboratory exercise described here aims to provide a relevant context for learning basic DNA techniques in an introductory animal science course at tertiary level. In two 4-hr laboratory sessions, students assess the suitability of bulls for inclusion in a gene-assisted selection program for A2 [beta]-casein by genotyping commercial bull…