Students at upper secondary and college level in many countries are introduced to quantum physics (QP) in a mostly mathless course. Research shows that addressing epistemological and philosophical aspects would be beneficial for novice students' conceptual understanding. However, physics teachers seldom address these nature of science (NOS)…

Geodesy is a very active and essential research discipline in geophysics but it is not a commonly studied subject at the secondary school or junior post-secondary levels. Far more frequently, gravity and gravitational acceleration are discussed, to some extent, in elementary kinematics or classical mechanics courses. This often takes the form of…

Connecting chemical concepts with real-world applications has been demonstrated to increase persistence, student attitudes, and performance. In a one-semester general chemistry course, most laboratory exercises were designed to have direct implications on real-world issues, and students were asked to consider these implications. Students blogged…

A major aim of science education reform documents (Achieve, 2013) is for K-12 students to engage in scientific practices to facilitate a better understanding of the processes and the aspects of doing science (Bybee, 2014). In this design case we present the design of a teaching unit on a socio-scientific issue (SSI) that can potentially engage…

The purpose of the current study is to investigate the effect of using Web 2.0 tools in the teaching of socioscientific issues on pre-service science teachers. A total of 24 senior pre-service science teachers attending a state university in the spring term of the 2021-2022 academic year participated in the study. The study was conducted with the…

This qualitative, ethnographic study focuses on how combining aspects of visual learning with a social media application (app)--Instagram--can be a useful learning tool for digital natives (DNs). Current students are classified as digital natives because they are inundated with technology, which has become an essential tool in their everyday…

Recent reform efforts have been adopted in the United States to reimagine student learning in science. Historical reform efforts have required teacher buy-in necessary for substantive change to occur. Using a mixed-method methodology, chemistry teacher progress in implementing the "Next Generation Science Standards" in Illinois and views…

Informal learning (IL) venues such as museums, zoos, scouting, national parks, and community activities are increasingly recognized for their important role in enhancing the public understanding of science. Many benefits to students who participate in rich informal learning experiences are reported in the literature, including improvements in…

A teaching team composed of a faculty member (lecture) and a graduate teaching assistant (lab) endeavored to engage students enrolled in several sections of the same organic chemistry course through the use of social media. Students were encouraged to follow both instructors on Twitter and were asked to share aspects of the class using the social…

Though several conceptual inventories have been developed for thermal physics, none target upper-division material and all focus specifically on thermodynamics without including statistical mechanics content. In this paper, we outline the development process of an upper-division thermal physics assessment that captures both thermodynamics and…

An interdisciplinary undergraduate atmospheric science modeling course was cotaught at a midsize public university by three professors from atmospheric science, statistics, and design using a blended learning approach. The in-class portion of the course taught upper-level students numerical weather prediction modeling and statistical evaluation…

I conducted a set of four studies to catalogue and examine course elements, including active learning strategies and evidence-based teaching practices, and their influence on student experiences and performance in college biology classes. In the first study, I defined the term "active learning" and catalogued the 300[plus] strategies…

The emergence of the Family Resemblance Approach (FRA) to nature of science (NOS) has prompted a fresh wave of scholarship embracing this new approach in science education. The FRA provides an ambitious and practical vision for what NOS-enriched science content should aim for and promotes evidence-based practices in science education to support…

This article describes how a homework task on climate change is being developed as part of a larger project on sustainability issues -- Urban Science. The ultimate aim of this European project is to improve the teaching of scientific enquiry so that students develop the competences to actively contribute to creating sustainable cities, to…

This study aimed to develop an e-content module for Chemistry Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). It examined the validity, reliability and student's perceptions on content, usability, design and effectiveness of the module. This is a design and development study and the e-content module was developed based on ADDIE instructional design model.…