When the sun rose over America on July 4, 2012, the world of science had radically changed. The Higgs boson had been discovered. Mind you, the press releases were more cautious than that, with "a new particle consistent with being the Higgs boson" being the carefully constructed phrase of the day. But, make no mistake, champagne corks…

Many chemistry laboratory exercises follow a given protocol with known results. Such traditional laboratories rarely give students an accurate representation of how research is conducted, the scientific practices involved in research, and the ownership that accompanies developing and carrying out an independent project. Several laboratory reforms…

First-year seminars and learning communities (LC) have been used to help increase retention, provide continuity, and support students as they transition to the university setting. Another high impact educational practice--common intellectual experiences (CIE)--includes student activities centered on a theme to help facilitate learning, increase…

In this article we present a synthesis of the research affecting pupils' conceptions of photosynthesis and plant nutrition. The main false conceptions of the pupils identified in this literature review are: that green plants find their food in the soil; that water and mineral salts are sufficient to the growth of a plant; the role of chlorophyll,…

The opportunity to engage in scientific research is an important, but often neglected, component of undergraduate training in biology. We describe the curriculum for an innovative, course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) appropriate for a large, introductory cell and molecular biology laboratory class that leverages students' high…

The research purpose was to assess the inquiry perception and ability of biology pre-service teachers. This research used mixed methods, with embedded design drawing on instruments adapted from the Principle of Scientific Inquiry -- Teacher (PSI-T), inquiry ability test, and open questions list. Data analysis used descriptive statistics technique…

Indonesia and many other developing countries have a vast youth population, yet limited facilities for physics learning. The major purposes of this study are to develop low-cost, technology-enhanced physical and virtual laboratories and to investigate their effects on various learning objectives, including conceptual understanding, inquiry…

The topicality of the research is conditioned by the social and pedagogic, scientific and theoretical, and scientific and methodical aspects. With regard to this, the paper is aimed at revealing the dependence of the teacher's overall work capacity on the development of his/her professional expertise. The leading methods in studying this problem…

The purpose of this study is to interpret and qualitatively characterise the content in some research articles and evaluate cases of possible difference in meanings of the gene concept used. Using a reformulation of Hirst's criteria of forms of knowledge, articles from five different sub-disciplines in biology (transmission genetic, molecular…

Student reasoning about cases of natural selection is often plagued by errors that stem from miscategorising selection as a direct, causal process, misunderstanding the role of randomness, and from the intuitive ideas of intentionality, teleology and essentialism. The common thread throughout many of these reasoning errors is a failure to apply…

One of the most important objectives of the science education includes helping students to think about the nature of scientific inquiries like a scientist and keep this point of view in order to understand the events occurring around them. This research aims to (1) compare secondary school students' views -who have creative drama &…

This study offers curriculum developers, teachers, and science education researchers a fine-grained profile on strengths and weaknesses in specific science domains and topics. The study involved a representative sample of 3844 Norwegian pupils in grade 8. Their responses on 216 TIMSS items in 18 topics from 4 science domains were modelled in a…

In the 2 day lesson presented in this article, students explain how ionic substances interact in solutions by developing and revising their own explanatory models. The lesson engaged students in three-dimensional learning through creating and revising their own models to explain the interaction of ionic substances and polar molecules in a closed…

History of science (HOS) plays a substantial role in the enhancement of rooted understanding in science teaching and learning. HOS of evolution and genetics has not been included in Vietnamese biology textbooks. This study aims to investigate the necessity of introducing evolution and genetics HOS into Vietnamese textbooks. A case study approach…

A simple and straightforward synthesis of an ultrastable porous metal-organic framework (MOF) based on copper(II) and a mixed N donor ligand system is described as a laboratory experiment for chemistry undergraduate students. These experiments and the resulting analysis are designed to teach students basic research tools and procedures while…