Facing calls for greater emphasis on STEM education in primary school classrooms, teachers may be anxious because of limited exposure to STEM in their own education. The Australian Curriculum: Technologies is new and many teachers are not familiar with its content. Hence both in-service and pre-service teachers (PSTs) require preparation. This…

The ability to make informed decisions is a skill considered as one of the 21st century skills and is crucial as part of the critical thinking and problem-solving process in science and engineering. Despite its importance, students (e.g., beginning designers) often struggle with making informed design decisions that are well supported by relevant…

A diagnostic study is presented of the prior experiences, conceptions, and pedagogical valuations of prospective primary teachers (PPTs) about experimental activities (ExA's) in science education. The participants were 121 PPTs who, in small teams, responded to various questions related to ExA. Their responses were analysed interpretively with…

In this paper we describe the results of some experiments about using surprising physics demonstrations, presented as magical phenomena followed by scientific explanations, for introducing physics topics in several teaching contexts. All the demonstrations have been designed to be implemented with easy to get and cheap materials, so that students…

In light of extensive research demonstrating widespread misconceptions about electricity, this paper describes a learning study that targeted the most likely source of difficulty--failure of middle school pupils to develop a mental model that serves as a bridge between static and current electricity. During the intervention, pupils first envision…

We designed a "3D Printing Technology Science Project" as part of a science methods course to engage preservice teachers (N = 41) in a 3D printing project that they could implement with their future elementary school students. The goal was to introduce prospective teachers to engineering design and technology application ideas and…

As a science leader in her school, the author is always looking for new and interesting ways to inspire children in the science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) subjects. Attending several science conferences introduced her to new STEM programs, such as Street Science and fractals. In this article, she shares a couple of the activities…

This article explores heterogeneity as fundamental to learning. Inspired by Bakhtin's notion of heteroglossia, a design team consisting of an experienced classroom teacher and 2 researchers investigated how a class of 3rd and 4th graders came to understand disciplinary points of view on heat, heat transfer, and the particulate nature of matter.…

These proceedings contain the papers of the 18th International Conference on Cognition and Exploratory Learning in the Digital Age (CELDA 2021), held virtually, due to an exceptional situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, from October 13-15, 2021, and organized by the International Association for Development of the Information Society…

Simple laboratory investigations are given which expose elementary students to optical crystallography techniques. Procedures and materials are designed for sixth-grade students. (SA)

Describes a summer course in chemistry conducted by college teachers for children aged 9 through 12. The children were provided with simple laboratory equipment and performed actual experiments and recorded the results. A few demonstrations were given, but lecturing was kept to a minimum. (MLH)

Describes a science laboratory experiment that can be done at home with the assistance of parents or older siblings. It is offered as an alternative to reading assignments or answering questions for homework. Parental assistance is encouraged. (SA)

This collection of lesson plans designed for teachers of 4th- through 12th-grade students utilizes an assortment of teaching strategies for topics related to coal and the coal industry. Activities cover the following topics: coal formation; coal identification; "the geologist's dilemma" (a supply and demand activity); geologic time and…

Describes four hands-on and inexpensive activities science teachers can employ to demonstrate, encourage, develop, and teach students the physical properties of light, heat, and sound waves, utilizing a coffee can. Details the basic experiments and provides additional information for tailoring the activities to elementary through middle…

Describes a physics experiment investigating temperature prediction and the relationship between the physical properties of heat units, melting, dissolving, states of matter, and energy loss. Details the experimental setup, which requires hot and cold water, a thermometer, and ice. Notes that the experiment employs a deliberate counter-intuitive…