In this design case, we describe our work to design and develop a socio-scientific issue (SSI) based unit of instruction for use in high school biology. Our team includes university based science educators, an experienced classroom teacher, and a microbiologist. The unit focuses on antibiotic resistant bacteria as a context for student exploration…

Informal learning is an important venue for educating the general public about complex socio- scientific issues: intersections of scientific understanding and society. My dissertation is a multi-tiered analysis of how informal education, and particularly informal educators, can leverage learning to respond to one particular socio-scientific issue:…

The purpose of the investigation was to investigate the consistency of NOS views among high school students across different scientific and socio-scientific contexts. A total of 261 high school students from eight different schools in Lebanon participated in the investigation. The schools were selected based on different geographical areas in…

Exploring science as a collective undertaking embedded in sociocultural contexts is a critical aspect of science education. This article concerns questions of curriculum design for science education for young learners, and it reports findings of a study on a conservation and environmental education initiative in Mexico's Sierra de Huautla…

In this article, the author explores how technological change is affecting most aspects of our society. In this vein, it is noted that even though education has historically been more resistant to technological change than other societal sectors, recent advances in distance education, specifically online learning, promise to radically disrupt…

In the 1990s, the field of geoethics started its development, associated with a set of ethical principles that regulate the profession of geologists in their relationship with society and with nature. Given the importance of this field, but also its youth, 36 higher education students attending a Master's of Geology course were surveyed (20 were…

This article describes the final lesson within a seven-day STEM and literacy unit that is part of the Picture STEM curriculum (pictureSTEM. org) and uses engineering to integrate science and mathematics learning in a meaningful way (Tank and Moore 2013). For this engineering challenge, students used nature as a source of inspiration for designs to…

This paper offers a conceptually novel contribution to the understanding of the distinctive governance challenges arising from the increasing reliance on formalized knowledge in the governance of research activities. It uses the current Australian research governance system as an example--a system which exhibits a comparatively strong degree of…

Argumentation is central to instruction centered on socio-scientific issues (Sadler & Donnelly in "International Journal of Science Education," 28(12), 1463-1488, 2006. doi: 10.1080/09500690600708717). Teachers can play a big role in helping students engage in argumentation and solve authentic scientific problems. To do so, they need…

In this article, the author reflects on chemistry teaching in the next century. He questions--Was anything he taught in his fundamental chemistry course of value? And, how will our current understanding of the molecular world change during his students' lifetimes? It reminded him of a pseudo-quote he remembered from his own university…

For the past three decades or so, the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS) has shed light on the interrelationship between modern science and technology, on one side, and contemporary society, on the other. A majority of this knowledge and insights are situated in the context of Western societies, or more precisely, in economically and…

"The idea of nature" (general model of how things work) that is accepted in a society strongly influences that group's social and technological progress. Currently, science education concentrates on "analysis" of stable pre-existing items to minimum constituents. This emphasis is consistent with an outlook that has been…

Socioscientific issues in connection to energy production, use or influence on climate change continue to be at the forefront of local, national, and global debates. The pressing nature of these issues requires citizens not only to understand relevant disciplinary knowledge but also to have the ability to use that knowledge to take action. This…

Life sciences became Biology, a formal scientific discipline, at the turn of the nineteenth century, when it adopted the methods of reductive physics and chemistry. Mendel's hypothesis of inheritance of discrete factors further introduced a quantitative reductionist dimension into biology. In 1910 Johannsen differentiated between the…

Many students leave the environmental science classroom with misconceptions centered on the availability of natural resources such as water. This article presents a case study where students assume the roles of various stakeholders and articulate their position on whether or not to pipe water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea. Additionally,…