Background: It is stated that it is necessary that students develop their nanoliteracy in order to come up with everyday issues arising from Nanoscale Science and Technology (NST) applications, taking informed decisions and estimating the potential risks and benefits. Even though the inclusion of NST in compulsory education is supported by many…

Describes a science activity in which sixth-grade students, using tookpicks and spherical breakfast cereals to construct molecular models, discovered that compounds with the same molecular formulas can have different structural formulas and therefore different physical properties (isomerism). (JR)

Offers a lesson for sixth-grade students where they study crystals in a science class; after looking at different types of crystals through a magnifying glass and microscope, the students sketch crystal formations in their science logs. Focuses on different repeating patterns enabling students to draw a repeated design of crystals from their logs.…

The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to understand the conceptual frameworks that sixth-grade students use to explain the nature and structure of matter and molecules; and (2) to assess the effectiveness of two alternate instructional units in helping students change those conceptions. The study involved 15 sixth-grade classes taught by 12…

This paper describes the development of a sixth-grade "Matter and Molecules" unit using a new curriculum development model based on conceptual change research, the field testing of this unit in 15 classrooms and the field test results. The development process and the resulting unit are contrasted with the unit's predecessor, the "Models of Matter"…