Background: The paper discusses how the design of summative assessments of practical science can be enhanced through the use of robust theoretical models that capture the diversity of scientific methods. The developments in assessment policy in England and the role of practical science in teaching and learning of science are reviewed. Purpose: The…

This article presents a Pedagogical Framework for Invasive Species to shift how we understand, teach, and study invasive species, especially when people are responsible for their expansion into new ecosystems. The focus is on a species originating from countries in Sub-Saharan Africa that humans extracted and introduced in certain regions of the…

Undergraduate research experiences benefit students' scientific skills, and recent trends in undergraduate research and education include focusing on interdisciplinary projects and on place-based learning. Here we describe a semester-long pilot interdisciplinary undergraduate research program focused on local aquatic ecosystems, discuss perceived…

As a cross-cutting and comprehensive subject, medicinal chemistry involves the knowledge of chemical, biological, medical, and pharmaceutical sciences. A comprehensive medicinal chemistry experience for undergraduates is expected to train various experimental skills and enhance their scientific research ability. Herein, a series of laboratory and…

This study aims to develop primary-school students' understanding of the scientific practices in the Benzene Ring Heuristic (BRH) and to determine how BRH applications would affect student perceptions about science, scientific knowledge, and scientists. An interpretative qualitative research design was used in the study. The study group consisted…

This research aims at comparing item characteristics of instruments for assessing the level of mastery in scientific method for elementary students as they were analyzed using Classical Test Theory (CTT) and Item Response Theory (IRT). The two analyses are usually done separately, for difference object, in this moment it was analyzed…

In this article, we present the simulation software called Aipotu and we propose a way to use it in order to promote Evolution Learning and Teaching. Through activities, included in a worksheet, students gradually gain new knowledge not only on evolution and its genetic base but on the concept of simulation and scientific modeling as well. Aipotu…

Colorimetry allows every color to be defined as a combination of three values, known as "color coordinates." Color coordinates allow researchers to universalize and standardize their color measurements, and nowadays, determining the color coordinates of samples is a routine method applied by organic and analytical chemists, students, and…

Within recent history, both science research and science education have been largely reductionist in perspective. While the reductionist approach has resulted in a significant increase in our knowledge of the natural world and in great technological advances, it is not sufficient for addressing global world challenges, such as sustainability,…

Supporting students in building well-grounded explanations plays a crucial role in scientific practice. Research in organic chemistry education on students' mechanistic explanations, however, has revealed various challenges. When solving mechanistic tasks, students experience difficulties when (I) deriving implicit properties from structural…

Environmental forensics is the application of knowledge from geosciences and chemistry in a legal setting, e.g., to determine the origin and consequences of contamination events. Teaching environmental forensics requires reactivating prior knowledge from different fields of natural sciences, filling knowledge gaps, and connecting pieces of…

Background: In countries that endorse science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education as an educational movement, design-based learning is deemed a pedagogical approach. Purpose: Because the integration of the engineering design process and scientific investigation has been an issue in science education, this study examined the…

In this paper, we describe the transition of all five course-sections of General Biology Laboratory I from "cookbook" surveys of taxonomic domains and kingdoms to course-based undergraduate research experiences that champion inquiry-based learning in "real world" environments. We achieved this by scaling-up lessons from a…

To enhance students' learning and help them understand the whole picture of the field of inorganic chemistry, an inorganic laboratory technique course was designed that uses scaffolded, inquiry-based lab experiments and project-based learning. The scaffolded, inquiry-based laboratories taught in the first 8 weeks of the course helped students…

Although teachers' instruction has been extensively studied, there is a dearth of research investigating how teachers design lessons and integrate new information into their existing lessons. This study utilized a case study approach to examine how teachers engaged in a nanoscale science professional development experience integrated new science…