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Being able to move between different representations levels (macroscopic, submicroscopic, and symbolic) is important to understand a chemical phenomenon meaningfully. The current study investigated how pre-service science teachers moved from symbolic representation to sub-microscopic representation. A total of 205 pre-service science teachers, first, balanced the three chemical reactions and then drew the reactions' sub-microscopic views if they were able to observe them. The findings revealed that pre-service science teachers are most successful at the symbolic level. Yet, this is not a valid conclusion for the sub-microscopic representation level. The drawings were analyzed concerning atomic size and molecular geometry and found that pre-service science teachers have common alternative concepts. Furthermore, they mostly have a superficial knowledge of the molecular geometry of chemical compounds. In conclusion, because preservice science teachers will teach in their future careers, it is important to encourage them to comprehend chemical phenomena at each representation level and shift between them to prevent alternative concepts they may have.

One of the main courses that have been affected by instructional technology is science education since the nature of topics covered by the science curriculum may require the usage of technology to teach them better. The aim of the current study was to investigate the effects of virtual laboratories on the development of gifted children's conceptual knowledge and the improvement of inquiry skills. A total of 43 sixth-grade gifted learners were the participants: 22 in the control group, in which hands-on experimentation was conducted, and 21 sixth-grade pupils in the experimental group, where virtual laboratory environments were used. Two different data-gathering tools, namely a multiple-choice conceptual knowledge test and an inquiry skills test, were used in this study. The results revealed that although both groups enhanced their conceptual knowledge and improved their inquiry skills throughout the study, the students in the experimental group reached significantly higher scores than their counterparts for both of the tests. Several suggestions are made for both science teachers and researchers concerning the outcomes of the current study.

It is an indispensable fact that having a positive attitude towards science is one of the important factors that promotes students for studying in science. The study is a kind of national study that aims to investigate middle school students', from different regions of Turkey, attitudes toward science, scientists and science classes. The study was done with 2,063 students from fourth grade to eighth grade from all regions of Turkey. The Assessing Attitudes and Preferences in Science (AAPS) instrument was used in the current study. The findings showed that students from western regions of Turkey have more positive attitudes toward science and the other related concepts. Furthermore it was reached that girls have more positive attitudes toward these concepts than boys. It was also found students' attitudes toward science decreases with respect to grade level (or age). Lastly, possible reasons of such results were discussed.

Textbooks are one of the primary teaching tools frequently used in schools and most teachers use them in their classrooms (Sanchez and Valcarcel, 1999). Since there are a lot of abstract concepts in science education, images in science textbooks play a vital role in the learning process (Kenan et al., 2011). Concretization of abstract concepts may ease students' understanding. For this reason, the aim of this study was to examine images about the particulate nature of matter (PNM) in Turkish middle school science textbooks. In other words, visuals were examined with respect to representational levels, relatedness to text, existence and properties of the captions. The rubric developed by Gkitzia et al. (2011) was used to evaluate the images from middle school science textbooks in selected units. A total of 825 images in Turkish middle school science textbooks were identified in related units. In addition, it was found that the most common representation type of images about the PNM in Turkish middle school science textbooks were macroscopic representations (36%). The relatedness of images to the text was also studied. It was concluded that just 4 out of 10 images were completely related and linked to the text. Lastly, it was found that more than half of the images about the PNM in Turkish middle school science textbooks had no caption.