Science education has a central role to play in preparing a scientifically literate citizenry that is capable of understanding complex environmental challenges facing human societies and making well-informed and evidence-based decisions that help resolve these challenges. However, evidence suggests that most Americans are poorly equipped with the…

Culturally sustaining and science education theorists advocate that children need to have opportunities to use personal experiences and background knowledge in dialog with peers as they make sense of phenomena in the natural world. Practically, this is a challenge to orchestrate -- both in classrooms and in out-of-school learning spaces -- as…

It is important for students to understand that what they learn in science class is the product of the hard work of those who have come before them. It is the author's job to help them understand this work and to encourage them to be future contributors to the understanding of how nature works. As stated in the National Science Education…

While students may acknowledge the impact that land use and development have on our environment, they do not necessarily understand the relationship between human activities and ecosystem responses. Therefore, the nature of the relationships leaves the science teacher to most often present information in a purely narrative form without any…

How can water and a penny demonstrate the power of mathematics and molecular theory? Do spelling and punctuation really matter to the human brain? The third of Thomas O'Brien's books designed for 5-12 grade science teachers, "Even More Brain-Powered Science" uses the questions above and 11 other inquiry-oriented discrepant events--experiments or…

Understanding the nature of science is even more important than mastering its details, says Alan Leshner, Chief Executive Officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in an interview with Educational Leadership. In this article, Leshner discusses the controversy about teaching evolution, and he asserts that demands to…

Embodiment as a compelling way to rethink the nature of teaching and learning asks participants to see fundamentally what is at stake within teaching/learning situations, encountering ourselves and our relations to others/otherness. Drawing predominantly on the thinking of John Dewey and Maurice Merleau-Ponty the body's role within teaching and…

Biographies are sometimes considered to be a bridge between fact and fiction. As students read real life accounts of the lives of scientists, they can expand their view of what kinds of things scientists do; realize that all kinds of people do science; find out how the scientific community influences the acceptance of scientific knowledge; learn…