Middle school is a crucial stage in student development as students prepare for a fast changing future. The science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills that students acquire in middle school lay the foundation for a successful career in STEM. Moreover, most STEM occupations require competencies in science, math and logical…

This paper presents results of a survey among school children aged 10 to 14 years, who participated in science or mathematics workshops. It particularly relates to their interest and motivation determined immediately after the workshop had finished. A total of 70 workshops were held in elementary schools of Rijeka, Croatia, involving the…

Ancient Halicarnassus, the site of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, has become famous since the 1980s as one of the major tourism centers of Turkey. Although the contribution of Ancient Halicarnassus to Turkey's economy increases as the number of tourists visiting the area increases, the area's historical, cultural and environmental values have…

A number of studies have already investigated children's stereotypical images of scientists as being male, old, bald, wearing eyeglasses, working in laboratories, and so forth. There have also been some interventions to impose more realistic images of scientists. In this study, a science camp was conducted in Turkey with a team of scientists…

The present research was conducted with 518 students enrolled at the 6th, 7th and 8th classes of primary schools. A likert-type scale developed by Tuan, Chin and Shieh (2005) and translated into Turkish by Yilmaz and Cavas (2007) was used to examine the motivation levels of students towards science learning. Research findings revealed that gender,…

The nature of science aspects (NOS) are the most emphasized theme in many curriculum and reform attempts. Teachers as a curriculum implementer in the classroom play important role for policy, arrangements and classroom experiences on NOS understandings of students. Researchers generally assessed the teachers' NOS conceptions using open-ended…

The study investigated the mental models of primary school children related to the day/night cycle. Semi-structure interviews were conducted with 40 fourth-grade and 40 sixth-grade children. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of the data indicated that the majority of the children were classified as having geocentric models. The results also…