The ubiquitous of STEM education initiatives in recent years has created a bandwagon that has moved at nearly light speed. The impulse of the science education community and policy-makers is to grab hold for dear life or be marginalized from subsequent discussions about the necessity and consequences of using STEM initiatives to prepare and inform…

In the nonmajor science classroom, case studies--when used as learning tools--should help students build the necessary framework to understand the nature of science. For most students, the nonmajor science course (in this case, Astronomy 101) may be the last time that they interact with science in a formal learning setting. A National Science…

The prominence of socioscientific issues (SSI), that combine society with science, in education has grown in recent years. The northern bald ibis is important for science and society since it is an endangered species, it only inhabits one region in Turkey and has a limited population worldwide. This study aims to ascertain the impact of the…

In this position paper, I argue that a focus on achieving and increasing social presence in online courses tends to derail a consideration of the ethical implications and dimensions of the essential facelessness of asynchronous education. Drawing upon the work of Emmanuel Levinas and Nel Noddings, who contended that the face is the basis of…

Socio-scientific teaching and learning (SSI-TL) has been suggested as an effective approach for supporting meaningful learning in school contexts; however, limited tools exist to support the work of designing and implementing this approach. In this paper, we draw from a series of four design based research projects that have produced SSI…

Carbon cycling is a key natural system that requires robust science literacy to understand how and why climate change is occurring. Studies show that students tend to compartmentalize carbon movement within plants and animals and are challenged to make sense of how carbon cycles on a global scale. Studies also show that students hold faulty models…

The main aim of this research was to measure 10th and 12th grade students' biological conceptual understanding and competences through their upper secondary school studies. Data collection started at the beginning of the upper secondary school biology studies in the 10th grade. The same students participated in this research when they were in the…

The aim of this study was to explore how the design of this chemistry lesson for citizenship influences students' use of different perspectives in decision-making about 'the use and sale of laughing gas'. In this study, 'the use and sale of laughing gas among youth' was chosen as a socio-scientific issue. This chemistry lesson for citizenship was…

This paper discusses essential elements of the philosophical works of Ludwik Fleck (1896-1961) and their potential interpretation for the teaching and learning of science. In the early twentieth century, Fleck made substantial contributions to understanding the sociological character of the nature of science and explaining the embedding of science…

This commentary explores theoretical alternatives for viewing the problem identified by Volny Fages and Virginie Albe in their article entitled Social issues in nanoscience and nanotechnology Master's degrees: The socio-political stakes of curricular choices. An approach to social research is suggested that would render visible the associations…

Argument skills play a crucial role in fostering students' scientific literacy. Students who possess such skills can employ reason and evidence to make decisions. This classroom action research was aimed at investigating the best practices for teaching chemistry to promote argument skills through socioscientific issues (SSI). The participants were…

As COVID-19 accelerated through spring of 2020 the question became how will schools cope with protracted closure? Devising strategies to engage and educate students through full-time, online learning became a priority. At Tufts CSE we specialize in creating high school biomedical science curricula that foster engagement with science and build…

The current study aims to explore how Thai preservice biology teachers make decisions upon and informally reason about two culture-based socioscientific issues, which are different yet contextually related. Participants included 46 fourth-year preservice biology teachers (12 males and 34 females) who completed a written questionnaire asking about…

In the new age and the conflict of competition between societies, the superiority of countries depends on the extent to which they benefit from modern science and knowledge, and ultimately the scientific effort and technology that generates creative and efficient human resources as the main factor Finding development. Higher education represents…

What is the future of Filipino in Filipino American? What counts as Filipino in Filipino American? Who counts as Filipino in Filipino American? Jeffrey Moniz poses these questions in light of demographic shifts over time and the advent of science and technology, including genetic testing. Moniz first explores indigenous perspectives and methods…