Conversations on the connection of art, beauty, and the aesthetic experience in science are gaining a voice in the science education community. This article provides a conceptual overview of the role of beauty and aesthetics in science and science education. It focuses on a discussion of four themes exploring beauty in scientific ideas and…

Creativity, the ability to produce novel and appropriate work, is one of humanity's most important traits. The concept applies to historic novelty, generating ideas and artefacts that arise for the first time in human history, and to individual novelty; ideas and artefacts new to the person who creates them. Despite its importance, creativity is…

The first section of this article examines a range of definitions of biotechnology. This analysis demonstrates that teachers' choices will determine their view of biotechnology, as positioned along a traditional-modern, axis, and provides examples of the tensions that these differing positions create. A further section argues that in order for…

Many researchers in the field of education aspire to influence what actually happens in schools and classrooms. They entered their profession aware of the need to improve educational practice; many of them want to make a difference. Yet few observers would claim that the results of education research are eagerly awaited by teachers, school…

The question of what students gain by engaging in socioscientific inquiry is addressed in two ways. First, relevant literature is surveyed to build the case that socioscientific issues (SSI) can serve as useful contexts for teaching and learning science content. Studies are reviewed which document student gains in discipline specific content…

Research into children's ideas showed that children's interpretations of natural phenomena often differ from those of scientists. The aim of our study was to identify children's ideas of various age classes (7/8-14/15) about birds. A questionnaire with 31 multiple choice and open ended questions and eight photographs were administered to 495…

Teaching the use of models in scientific research requires a description, in general terms, of how scientists actually use models in their research activities. This paper aims to arrive at defining common characteristics of models that are used in present-day scientific research. Initially, a list of common features of models and modelling, based…

This longitudinal case-study aimed at examining whether purposely teaching for the promotion of higher order thinking skills enhances students' critical thinking (CT), within the framework of science education. Within a pre-, post-, and post-post experimental design, high school students, were divided into three research groups. The experimental…

Studies from different theoretical traditions investigating children's inheritance and genetics concepts have adopted a cross-sectional method. This paper is the first to examine both cross-sectional and longitudinal changes in children's basic genetic concepts. It forms part of a larger investigation into the development of intuitive inheritance…

How do students bridge everyday life views into physics understanding? We report from in-depth analysis of one group of four students, video-recorded over 135 min solving a context rich problem (CRP). Through transcripts of the group's conversations and from flow-charts made of the group talk we have categorised how students' experiences develop…

The Israeli high school biology curriculum comprises the Biomind program, in which students are engaged in an open inquiry learning process. The dynamic features of open inquiry often pose challenges to teachers in implementing the Biomind program. The current qualitative research shows that facilitating students in a dynamic open inquiry process…

Two years after the first low-cost radio-frequency audience response system using clickers was introduced for college classrooms, at least six different systems are on the market. Their features and user-friendliness are evolving rapidly, driven by competition and improving technology. The proliferation of different systems is putting pressure on…

Audience response systems (ARS) or clickers, as they are commonly called, offer a management tool for engaging students in the large classroom. Basic elements of the technology are discussed. These systems have been used in a variety of fields and at all levels of education. Typical goals of ARS questions are discussed, as well as methods of…

Cells are the fundamental unit of life and disease; therefore, many avenues of research converge on cells, making images of cells prominent in research and teaching. Much of the progress of modern biomedical science can be tied to advances in our ability to better visualize the functional morphology of cells, including higher resolution imaging,…

This article reports on a convention held at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC, on October 3-5, 2006, to discuss the current status and future of undergraduate education in agriculture. This "Leadership Summit to Effect Change in Teaching and Learning" was a first step in what is planned to be an ongoing conversation that is…