The new Australian national science curriculum includes chemistry content at the primary level. Chemistry for young students is learning about changes in material stuff (matter) and, by implication, of what stuff is made. Pedagogy in this area needs to be guided by research if stepping stones to later learning of chemical ideas are to facilitate…

From effective learning research, there is a general consensus that hands-on experiences help students to learn. The question that this paper seeks to answer is what it is about these activities that fosters student learning. In a review of the literature, three factors have been identified as making a significant contribution to this strategy's…

Seventeen Grade Six students were divided into small groups to study the concept of forces in the context of magnets and their properties. The researcher, a pre-service primary school teacher, encouraged the students into conversation about magnets and it was found that, without hesitation, they talked about their prior experience of magnets. The…

In this article we describe our experiences in developing futures scenarios in two science contexts, space science and atmospheric science/climate change. Futures scenario writing can develop scientific literacy by connecting science learning to students' lifeworlds--past, present and future. They also provide a synthesising mechanism for…

"MyScience" ("www.myscience.edu.au") is a pioneering primary science initiative that uses a distinctive team approach, with primary teachers, primary students and volunteer mentor scientists working collaboratively as students conduct authentic scientific investigations to find answers to their own questions. The initiative is distinctive in that…

This article describes a simple, inexpensive, easy to conduct gel-electrophoresis activity using food dyes. It is an alternative to the more expensive counterparts which require agarose gel, DNA samples, purchased chamber and Tris-borate-EDTA buffer. We suggest some learning activities for senior biology students along with comments on several…

Composting can provide both a means of managing organic waste, and a vehicle to teach Science at all levels of schooling. In response to a local organic waste issue a process has been developed to compost waste from an olive oil press and analyse the resultant compost. In this article, the composting process is described in a manner that can be…

The International Year of Astronomy in 2009 focused considerable public attention on Astronomy and generated valuable resources for educators. These activities are an effective vehicle for promoting Science to students and to the wider school community. The most engaging practical astronomy activities are best delivered with sustained support from…

Capitalising on areas in which teachers feel most comfortable, the teaching of Biology, environmental education or nature to young children can be an alternative way of introducing and understanding Science. A "Citizen Science" program currently being run by the University of South Australia (UniSA) may be an appropriate starting point. "Citizen…

By the age of seven, many children would have eaten jelly and many would have experienced its preparation by watching adults. This small scale study explores the use of different levels of thinking skills and language in discussing the process of jelly making among Grade 2 students. Semi-structured, one-to-one interviews with fifteen students were…

This research used a survey and interviews to find out which science subjects 174 Year 10 students wanted to study in Year 11 and why. The results showed that the major reasons students wanted to study a particular science subject were because they were interested in the subject matter and because they felt they would achieve well in that subject.…

Learning is most effective when the scientific context used in the classroom is a transformed extension of the students' real world and so inspires students' intrinsic motivation, encouraging students to ask meaningful questions and seek their own answers through an inquiry or investigative approach. The Student Owned Learning Model (SOLM)…

"Slowmation" (abbreviated from "Slow Animation") is a simplified way of making an animation that enables students to create their own as a new way of learning about a science concept. When students make a slowmation, they create a sequence of five multimodal representations (the 5 Rs) with each one contributing to the learning process in…

"Glimpses of Science" is the outcome of collaboration between the University of New South Wales and four primary schools in the Sydney metropolitan region. A prototype kit on the topic of sound was developed and demonstrated by the team. This kit formed the basis for further science activities to be designed and produced in conjunction with the…

Australia has one of the highest rates of incidence and mortality due to skin cancer in the world. Exposure to the sun also has a beneficial side. The beneficial effects are relatively few, but they are essential to a person's well being. It is well known that exposure to small amounts of UV radiation are beneficial for the human body and…