We report on interviews conducted with twenty-one elementary school children (grades 1-5) about a number of Earth science concepts. These interviews were undertaken as part of a teacher training video series designed specifically to assist elementary teachers in learning essential ideas in Earth science. As such, children were interviewed about a…

Students who enter introductory geology classes often have misconceptions about geoscience research, and they seldom have opportunities to gain authentic research experience in these classes. To improve student engagement in the class and understanding of geoscience research methods, a semester-long authentic inquiry research project was…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the inquiry features demonstrated in the inquiry tasks of a high school Earth Science curriculum. One of the most widely used curricula, Holt Earth Science, was chosen for this case study to examine how Earth Science logical reasoning and authentic scientific inquiry were related to one another and how…

Research has shown that spatial thinking is important in science in general, and in Earth Science in particular, and that performance on spatially demanding tasks can be fostered through instruction. Because spatial thinking is rarely taught explicitly in the U.S. education system, improving spatial thinking may be "low-hanging fruit" as…

Earth science, which in this context does not include oceanic, atmospheric, and space sciences, is vital to the wellbeing of the United States and many of its issues, such as water resources, are expected to grow in importance. An earth science workforce will be needed to deal with this issues and it's important that this workforce draw on the…

The 21st century will be defined by challenges such as understanding and preparing for climate change and ensuring the availability of resources such as water and energy, which are issues deeply rooted in Earth science. Understanding Earth science concepts is critical for humanity to successfully respond to these challenges and thrive in the…

As science textbooks are considered as one of the major source of climate change information of students, this study aims to examine the differences in energy saving and carbon reduction knowledge, attitude, and behavior between two groups of Taiwan's high school students using earth science textbooks of two different publishers. Some items of…

Driven by our technologically advanced workplaces and the surge in demand for proficiency in the computing disciplines, it is becoming imperative to provide computational thinking (CT) opportunities to all students. One approach for making computing accessible and relevant to learning and problem-solving in K-12 environments is to integrate it…

Burlington Junior School in the East Riding of Yorkshire decided to highlight some excellent role models to its pupils during British Science Week 2021, who were not the stereotypical male, white, old or dead scientist. The intention was to make learning more relevant, more accessible and therefore more engaging and informative. It was hoped that…

The pervasive use of visual representations in textbooks, curricula, and assessments underscores their importance in K-12 science education. For example, visual representations figure prominently in the recent publication of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States in Next generation science standards: for states, by states.…

Modern data collection in the Earth Sciences has propelled the need for understanding signal processing and time-series analysis techniques. However, there is an educational disconnect in the lack of instruction of time-series analysis techniques in many Earth Science academic departments. Furthermore, there are no platform-independent freeware…

A novel learning intervention has been developed and tested in which honor's level Earth science students were tasked with conducting interviews with established geologists working in the Southern African minerals sector. The task was designed using Laurillard's conversational framework as a theoretical underpinning, which offers an iterative and…

The Texas Earth and Space Science (TXESS) Revolution was a 5-y teacher professional development project that aimed to increase teachers' content knowledge in Earth science and preparing them to teach a 12th-grade capstone Earth and Space Science course, which is new to the Texas curriculum. The National Science Foundation-supported project was…

Today, individuals need a solid understanding of how earth as a system works in order to understand and develop solutions for science-based issues affecting societies on a global scale such as natural disasters, global warming or COVID-19 pandemic. Humans also deliberate space investigations, such as interplanetary travels and life in space.…

The processes of developing and the results of testing a master's degree program designed to increase the number and quality of secondary-level earth science teachers are described in this paper. The master's program is intended to serve practicing secondary-level science and math teachers who lack subject-area endorsement in earth science. There…