Search results for "Science instruction"

Generating students' information seeking questions in the scholar lab: what benefits can we expect from inquiry teaching approaches?

2013

ABSTARCT: Physics teachers use experimental devices to show students how scientific concepts, principles, and laws are applied to understand the real world. This paper studies question generation of secondary and under-graduate university students when they are confronted with experimental devices in different but usual teaching situations: reading about devices while studying still images or diagrams, watching an experimental demonstration, and handling the devices in the laboratory. The influence of the prior scientific knowledge on the questions asked is also analysed. Inquiry learning environments, involving lab projects, seemed to stimulate more inferences addressed to causality when s…

Development and Evaluation of Paper-Based Devices for Iron(III) Determination in an Advanced Undergraduate Laboratory

2020

We describe a paper-based microfluidic device for iron(III) assay in an applied instrumental analysis laboratory. Simple and convenient devices were fabricated by the students using patterning of f...

English-bilingual biology for standard classes development, implementation and evaluation of an English-bilingual teaching unit in standard German hi…

2019

English connects all areas of science around the world. Productive and receptive English-language skills are thus a crucial tool that schools must provide their students with in order to prepare th...

Open-inquiry driven overcoming of epistemological difficulties in engineering undergraduates: A case study in the context of thermal science

2014

This paper addresses the efficacy of an open-inquiry approach that allows students to build on traditionally received knowledge. A sample of thirty engineering undergraduates, having already attended traditional university physics instruction, was selected for this study. The students were involved in a six- week long learning experience of open-inquiry research activities within the highly motivating context of developing a thermodynamically efficient space base on Mars. They designed and carried out their own scientific investigations, which involved gathering information, collecting and analyzing data, providing explanations, and sharing results. A questionnaire containing fifteen open-e…

An interdisciplinary school project using a Nintendo Wii controller for measuring car speed

2013

This is an author-created, un-copyedited version of an article published in Physics Review. IOP Publishing Ltd is not responsible for any errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version derived from it. The Version of Record is available online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0031-9120/48/2/184 This work examines the feasibility of employing a Nintendo Wii game controller for measuring car speed in an interdisciplinary school project. It discusses the physical characteristics of the controller and of vehicle headlights. It suggests how an experiment may be linked to topics in mathematics, statistics, physics and computer science. An algorithm for calculating speed from rep…

Students' Understanding of the Special Theory of Relativity and Design for a Guided Visit to a Science Museum

2009

International audience; This paper describes the design of teaching materials that are used as learning tools in school visits to a science museum. An exhibition on the A century of the Special Theory of Relativity, in the Kutxaespacio Science Museum, in San Sebastian (Spain), was used to design a visit for first year engineering students at the university and assess the learning which was achieved. The first part of the paper presents the teaching sequence which was designed to build a bridge between formal teaching and the exhibition visit. The second part analyses the potential of the exhibition and the aforementioned teaching sequence to influence the students' knowledge of three aspect…

Teaching of energy issues: A debate proposal for a global reorientatiom

2007

The growing awareness of serious difficulties in the learning of energy issues has produced a great deal of research, most of which is focused on specific conceptual aspects. In our opinion, the difficulties pointed out in the literature are interrelated and connected to other aspects (conceptual as well as procedural and axiological), which are not sufficiently taken into account in previous research. This paper aims to carry out a global analysis in order to avoid the more limited approaches that deal only with individual aspects. From this global analysis we have outlined 24 propositions that are put forward for debate to lay the foundations for a profound reorientation of the teaching o…

Biochemistry and molecular biology techniques for person characterization

2008

Using the traditional serological tests and the most novel techniques for DNA fingerprinting, forensic scientists scan different traits that vary from person to person and use the data to include or exclude suspects based on matching with the evidence obtained in a criminal case. Although the forensic application of these methods is well known, the procedures and techniques used to obtain these results are not so well studied. Here, we report a laboratory exercise aimed to familiarize the students in several of the methods and markers employed for people individualization. With this exercise, students have to characterize themselves and an unknown sample according to the following character…

A Simple Method for the Consecutive Determination of Protonation Constants through Evaluation of Formation Curves

2013

A simple method is presented for the consecutive determination of protonation constants of polyprotic acids based on their formation curves. The procedure is based on generally known equations that describe dissociation equilibria. It has been demonstrated through simulation that the values obtained through the proposed method are sufficiently consistent with the actual values. In contrast with the universally known and applied Bjerrum’s method, no differences in the accuracy of determination of subsequent protonation constant values are observed. The proposed method requires the value of one of the protonation constants (e.g., of the first one, K1) of the polyprotic acid. An iterative meth…

2019

This research clarifies how a collaborative team teaching model (CTTM) can support both pre-service and in-service teachers’ professional development in using inquiry-based science teaching in primary schools. The data were collected via a questionnaire-based survey approach after inquiry projects implementation at public schools in four Finnish cities. In total, 98 pre-service teachers and 51 in-service class teachers were involved in the research. According to their experiences collaborative team teaching was seen as an adequate teaching approach in primary school science lessons. Both in-service and pre-service teachers experienced inquiry-based science teaching enthusiastically and rece…