Understanding the nature of science and scientific inquiry constitute foundation stones in scientific education in general and in scientific literacy in particular. Therefore, students must develop informed perceptions regarding science inquiry in order to be scientifically literate. The current study's purpose was to examine students' perceptions…

This study examines the effects of a place-based intervention program on the sense of place of Bedouin elementary school students. These students live on the banks of the polluted Hebron Stream in Israel, where a three-pronged restoration program has recently been established, including the stream's rehabilitation, the establishment of local waste…

Recent efforts in the science education community have highlighted the need to integrate research and theory from science communication research into more general science education scholarship. These synthesized research perspectives are relatively novel but serve an important need to better understand the impacts that the advent of rapidly…

Science teachers are expected to teach in innovative ways that are different from their long experience as students. Professional development programs are planned to help teachers' development, yet, there is little knowledge of the long-term effects of professional development programs (PDPs), and especially on actual practice. The purpose of this…

Modeling is a core scientific practice. This study probed the meta-modeling knowledge (MMK) of high school students who study science but had not had any explicit prior exposure to modeling as part of their formal schooling. Our goals were to (A) evaluate the degree to which MMK is dependent on content knowledge and (B) assess whether the upper…

Science museums often introduce plays to liven up exhibits, attract visitors to specific exhibitions, and help visitors to "digest" difficult content. Most previous research has concentrated on viewers' learning outcomes. This study uses performance and spectator analyses from the field of theater studies to explore the link between…

The main goal of this study was to examine the Environmental Workshop unit taught to Environmental Sciences majors in the high schools in Israel and learn if, and in what ways, this unit could become a model for environmental education throughout the high school curriculum. We studied the special characteristics of the Environmental Workshop (EW)…

In order to bridge the existing gap between biology curricula and students' interests in biology, a strategy for identifying students' interest based on their questions and integrating them into the curriculum was developed. To characterize the level of generalizability of students' science interests over 600 high school students from Portugal,…

This paper describes a study conducted in the context of chemistry education reforms in Israel. The study examined a new biochemistry learning unit that was developed to promote in-depth understanding of 3D structures and functions of proteins and nucleic acids. Our goal was to examine whether, and to what extent teaching and learning via…

PARSEL Project emerged from the urgent need to overcome the problem of lack of scientific literacy in the population, which should be a priority in a society where science occupies a central place. Indeed, nowadays for any citizen to participate in a responsible and informed way in society he has to be scientifically acknowledgeable. Nevertheless,…

In the new science and technology junior-high-school curriculum in Israel, it is recommended that the cell topic be taught "longitudinally in conjunction with other study contents". This recommendation confers a change in teaching the cell topic and provides an opportunity to form meaningful relationships between biological phenomena at…

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…