Human-driven carbon emissions have resulted in increased levels of dissolved carbon dioxide in the Earth's oceans. This dissolved carbon dioxide reacts with water to form carbonic acid, which impacts ocean acidity as well as the solubility of carbonate-containing compounds, with far-reaching impacts on marine ecosystems and the human communities…

Informal science educators' (ISEs) work with young children has received limited attention in the literature. We investigated ISEs' goals for preschool-aged audiences (3- to 5-year-old children), methods they describe for achieving these goals, and how ISEs understand young children as "doing science" in their venues. We interviewed 35…

In basic education in Brazil, there is often confusion concerning the relationship between the greenhouse effect and global warming. The present work evaluates the status of research on this issue. A systematic literature review (SLR) was undertaken, considering studies published between 2013 and 2024, obtained using the databases CAPES Journal…

Our connection with nature is important for mental and physical well-being and this connection depends on how we understand, value and engage with the natural world. However, there is persistent evidence that young people remain disconnected from nature. In this article we discuss reasons why many secondary schools in England are having difficulty…

In this paper, we propose and describe a new approach, named BarcodingGO, to teach environmental DNA and bioinformatics concepts to undergraduate or graduate students in molecular biology-related fields. The learning pipeline proposed here aims to solve a simulated environmental monitoring problem, in which a biodiversity survey of a particular…

Presented is a project-based learning (PBL) laboratory approach for an upper-division environmental chemistry or quantitative analysis course. In this work, a combined laboratory class of 11 environmental chemistry students developed a method based on published EPA methods for the extraction of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and its…

The human relation to things in the world is at stake in the so-called post-humanist era where the distinction between human and non-human is blurred, as indicated in a term like 'the nano-self'. How should we understand the nature of our relation to things in this era? Or how can we describe an "educationally" meaningful relation we as…

In school-based research, isolating the potential effects of a single variable while attempting to maintain typical classroom routines is always a challenge. Unfortunately, the challenges and methodological approaches to overcoming them are often only shallowly reported, perhaps due to word limits or assumptions that those details are irrelevant…

Exposure and experience with ethical dilemmas and controversial socioscientific issues provide a link to students' lives or a pathway for sympathy/empathy and care, where youth use emotion to engage with the scenario and develop critical thinking skills to respond to ethical issues. For this theoretical paper, I focus on how informal science can…

This article reports on the theoretical output of a design research study, which concerns the design of a learning environment (LE) for helping students challenge the 'balance of nature'-idea and reach an up-to-date understanding about ecosystems' contingency. Our focus is set on whether it is feasible to articulate an empirically tested theory of…

This study aims to integrate biomimicry into science education by proposing a teaching approach for primary school students. An action research approach was used. The developed 'Biomimicry Teaching Approach' was applied in a 5th grade classroom in a public school in Turkey where one of the authors is a teacher. According to this approach, the…

In the DISCUSS (Dialogic Inquiry for Socioscientific and Conceptual Understanding in School Science) research project, a Socioscientific Issues (SSI)-based curriculum is developed and implemented in sixth-grade science classrooms with predominantly English language learners (ELLs) in Houston, Texas. A four-week space unit is designed in…

The aim of the present assay is to provide a simple algorithm as well as a didactic theoretical framework that may serve as an introduction to understanding modern habitat suitability (HS) modelling techniques in Ecology and Biogeography. The proposal is built on classical descriptive statistics and classical ecological theories. Shelford's theory…

"Wetekia kia rere" is an expression in the Maori language that refers to "unleashing potential". This paper discusses questions of power relevant to challenges recently identified by government officials regarding learners' experiences of science education in New Zealand schools. We begin by summarising the Treaty relationship…

Misconceptions about climate change are common, which suggests a need to effectively address the subject in the classroom. This article describes a project-based science activity in which students report on the physical basis, adaptations, and mitigation of this global problem, adapting the framework of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel…