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The purpose of this paper is to present an appraisal of a lesson-study implementation with pre-service biology teachers concerning a health education issue, how blood pressure works and how it is affected. The participants were 11 pre-service teachers, a secondary school biology teacher and three teacher educators from a local University. A qualitative and interpretative approach was followed. Data were collected through participant observation, content analysis of the pre-service biology teachers' individual written reflections, and their proposal of a lesson plan. The results evidenced the value of this formative approach, concerning the learning opportunities it offers, not only related to the scientific content knowledge but also the didactic knowledge developed by pre-service teachers. They seemed to develop a holistic understanding of how to teach a theme as multidimensional as this one, health education, but they also developed didactic knowledge related to different central aspects of the teaching process, concerning lesson planning, task development, classroom management, and communication, and became aware of the importance of developing several crucial competencies as science teachers. The lesson-study approach revealed to be a strategy for learning about teaching planning that has the particularity of bringing theory and practice remarkably closer.

Purpose: This paper aims to understand if a project work methodology proposed to students, based on an inquiry perspective and dealing with different dimensions of sustainable development, contributed to creating an interdisciplinary solution for a problem on sustainability challenged by food production and consumption, and also to understand if this methodological approach is perceived as important to their learning as professionals and citizens. Data were collected by direct observation, a questionnaire applied to the students and students' individual reflections. Design/methodology/approach: This paper aims to present the research results of the impact of a pedagogical approach on students, implemented as a part of the Doctoral Programme in Sustainability Science, which was designed following an innovative model at the University of Lisbon, Portugal. The main drivers include building a new body of interdisciplinary knowledge leading to the application of science to address real problems towards transdisciplinary education. Findings: The results suggest great potential for an inquiry perspective in trying to solve a real problem. Students' proposals were realistic, viable and complementary enough to collectively contribute in response to the global problem. The use of approaches acquired from different areas of knowledge was clear, and the project methodology was well understood. Students considered the experience very rewarding in terms of learning and contributing positively to their personal and professional development. Originality/value: This Doctoral programme is anchored in a progressive continuum encompassing holistic debates with a multidisciplinary team of professors in environments that promote interdisciplinary attitudes and new knowledge, and also project work aimed at guiding students to transdisciplinary learning, which constitutes an innovative form of dealing with the complex challenges created by the science of sustainability.

The present study conceptualized, implemented, and evaluated a specific program, the Live Science program. This program integrated 2 distinct but complementary approaches: participants' immersion in real science contexts and the participation of future teachers in seminars intended to share the immersion experience and to reflect on nature of science (NOS). Four future teachers participated in the Live Science program in 2 real research contexts. Through an analysis of the experiences and lessons learned from this program, this study tried to understand to what extent participation in real-context scientific activities, focused on an explicit and reflective approach to NOS, can contribute to the professional development of preservice elementary teachers. Interviews, questionnaires, observations, diaries, and videotaped seminars were used for data collection. Our findings suggest that the adoption of an explicit approach through illustration and reflection on particular aspects of NOS within the context of scientific research is a promising approach considering that it potentially allows for the development of a more informed understanding of science. The results also suggest that along with personality-related factors, the inherent characteristics of real science contexts play an important role in the development of that understanding. Tightly organized research teams capable of giving ample support to preservice teachers and working in research fields in which participants' conceptions can be confronted should be selected in order to improve the impact of this type of program.

In this work, we present a marine ecology inquiry-based activity, implemented with 164 primary school students. The main goal was to evaluate the activity's impact on students' understanding about biodiversity and scientific procedures. We also aimed to analyse the potential use of personal meaning maps (PMMs) to assess the impact of the activity on students' ideas about the topics explored. The results revealed that fieldwork and the exploration of real data were the aspects most emphasised by all intervenient. Finally, the PMMs proved to be a good tool to evaluate the impact of activities developed outside classroom, with primary school levels.

We propose an inquiry-based science activity centred on the effects of climate change on ocean ecosystems. This activity can be used to improve acquisition of knowledge on the effects of climate change and to promote inquiry skills, such as researching, reading and selecting relevant information, identifying a problem, focusing on a research question, making predictions, planning experiments, observing and registering data, drawing conclusions, developing explanations and communicating findings to class. The activity is suitable for 8- to 13-year-old students and can be used in the classroom.

The purpose of the study was to investigate how young students engage in an inquiry-based project driven by real-life contexts. Elementary school children were engaged in a small inquiry project centred on marine biodiversity and species adaptations. All activities included the exploration of an out-of-school setting as a learning context. A total of 49 students and 2 teachers were involved in the activities. The research methods included observation, document analysis and content analysis of the answers to a questionnaire and an interview. The results revealed that most of the students acquired scientific knowledge related to biological diversity and adaptations to habitat. Moreover, students progressively demonstrate greater autonomy, argumentative ability and decision-making. One implication of the present study is that elementary science curriculum could be better managed with inquiry project-based activities that explore different types of resources and out-of-school settings.

The activities presented in this paper, which are addressed to elementary school, are focused on the pioneering work of the Portuguese King Carlos I in oceanography and involve the exploration of the exhibits belonging to two different science museums, the Aquarium Vasco da Gama and the Maritime Museum. Students were asked to study fish adaptations to deep sea, through the exploration of a fictional story, based on historical data and based on the work of the King that served as a guiding script for all the subsequent tasks. In both museums, students had access to: historical collections of organisms, oceanographic biological sampling instruments, fish gears and ships. They could also observe the characteristics and adaptations of diverse fish species characteristic of deep sea. The present study aimed to analyse the impact of these activities on students' scientific knowledge, on their understanding of the nature of science and on the development of transversal skills. All students considered the project very popular. The results obtained suggest that the activity promoted not only the understanding of scientific concepts, but also stimulated the development of knowledge about science itself and the construction of scientific knowledge, stressing the relevance of creating activities informed by the history of science. As a final remark we suggest that the partnership between elementary schools and museums should be seen as an educational project, in which the teacher has to assume a key mediating role between the school and the museums.

Mobilizing scientific knowledge for understanding the natural world and for critically appraise socio-scientific situations and make decisions are key competencies for today's' society. Therefore, it is essential to understand how students at the end of compulsory schooling use scientific knowledge for understanding the surrounding world. The objective of this study is to understand how students construct a scientifically oriented explanation while making sense of a phenomenon related to health. We analysed 526 answers to a question of a Portuguese national 9th grade science exam. The results reveal that most students present difficulties in explaining a phenomenon related to health supported by logical and clear reasoning, and in mobilizing scientific knowledge for connecting different scientific domains. We reaffirm the need to reconceptualize the role of health education within science education. Developing reading, writing and discussion activities related to health, which requires the use of scientific knowledge from different domains, would facilitate students' understanding and appropriation of scientific knowledge and its transference. This is a fundamental competence for promoting active and informed citizenship.