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The aim of this study was to develop an animation-based curriculum and to evaluate the effectiveness of animation-based instruction; the report involved the assessment of prior knowledge and the appropriate feedback approach, for the purpose of reducing perceived cognitive load and improving learning. The curriculum was comprised of five subunits designed to teach the ‘Principles of Earthquakes.’ Each subunit consisted of three modules: evaluation of prior knowledge with/without in-time feedback; animation-based instruction; and evaluation of learning outcomes with feedback. The 153 participants consisted of 10th grade high-school students. Seventy-eight students participated in the animation-based instruction, involving assessment of prior knowledge and appropriate feedback mechanism (APA group). A total of 75 students participated in animation-based learning that did not take into account their prior knowledge (ANPA group). The effectiveness of the instruction was then evaluated by using a Science Conce...

This study investigates the effective research-based characteristics of professional development (ERBCPD) of the National Science Foundation’s GK-12 Program—a program which partners institutions of higher education with local school districts and places science, technology, engineering, and mathematics graduates in the K-12 classroom with teachers. Final evaluations of 26 GK-12 sites were analyzed with a priori and emergent content analyses, which included rigorous inter- and intra-reliability testing. The results of the a priori analysis demonstrated that the GK-12 program incorporates all ERBCPD, but to drastically varying degrees (76–5%). The a priori characteristics that appeared most often were “Treats Fellows as professionals,” and “Professional development is on-going.” The two emergent characteristics included “Improves communication skills” and “Has real world application.”

This study explored the phenomenon of testing effect during science concept assessments, including the mechanism behind it and its impact upon a learner's conceptual understanding. The participants consisted of 208 high school students, in either the 11th or 12th grade. Three types of tests (traditional multiple‐choice test, correct concept test, and incorrect concept test) related to the greenhouse effect and global warming were developed to explore the mechanisms underlining the test effect. Interview data analyzed by means of the flow‐map method were used to examine the two‐week post‐test consequences of taking one of these three tests. The results indicated: (1) Traditional tests can affect participants' long‐term memory, both positively and negatively; in addition, when students ponder repeatedly and think harder about highly distracting choices during a test, they may gradually develop new conceptions; (2) Students develop more correct conceptions when more true descriptions are provided on the test...

We live in a scientific world; paradoxically, the scientific literacy of the population is minimal at best. Science is an ongoing process, a human endeavour; paradoxically, students tend to believe that science is a finished enterprise. Many non-science major students are not motivated in science classes; paradoxically, there is a public fascination with the possibility of life in the Universe, which is nowadays a scientific endeavour. An astrobiology course was developed at the Center for Science and Mathematics Education at The University of Texas at Austin to address these paradoxes and includes the following objectives: (a) to improve scientific literacy; (b) to demonstrate that science is a work in progress; (c) to enhance the inherent interdisciplinary aspect of science; (d) to demonstrate that science is embedded in society and relates with several social sciences; (e) to improve the content knowledge about the nature of science; (f) to illustrate how engaging learning science can be; and (g) to draw from the intrinsic motivation already incorporated in the general population. The course has been offered, taught and revised for the past three years. The informal course student feedback has been very positive and encouraging. The purpose of this paper is to provide a general overview of the course. In addition, the course's background, content, themes and mode of delivery are outlined, discussed and analysed in this paper. This paper subscribes to an educational philosophy that focuses on the multidisciplinary nature of science and includes critical thinking-based teaching strategies using the dynamic discipline of astrobiology.

This study examines the possibilities of differential impacts on students' earth science learning outcomes between different preferred–actual learning environment spaces by using a newly developed ESCLEI (Earth Science Classroom Learning Environment Instrument). The instrument emphasizes three simultaneously important classroom components: content, method, and assessment with both student-centered and teacher-centered scales embedded. Findings suggest that preferred–actual space (PASmatch) between posttreatment perceptions and pretreatment preferences accounted for a more substantial and statistically significant amount of learning outcomes in terms of students' attitudes toward the subject matter with greater than large effect size, concerning practical significance in the actual earth science classroom. These findings suggest that earth science instruction in the secondary schools should bridge the gap between students' preferred/perceived learning environment with the aim to enhance their learning outcomes. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed90:420–433, 2006

A digital interactive tutorial has been created to provide undergraduates a ‘virtual microscope’ resource for learning sandstone petrology. The tutorial does not replace hands-on laboratory experiences with the petrographic microscope, but lends efficiency and breadth to the learning process. Students are able to obtain practice with identification of a wide array of sandstone components outside of the laboratory and independently of the instructor. The efficacy of traditional petrography instruction versus instruction supplemented by the tutorial was assessed in two semesters of GEO 416M, “Sedimentary Rocks” at the University of Texas at Austin. Students in the first semester were not provided with the tutorial, providing a baseline or control for comparison. In the second semester, the digital tutorial was provided to all students on CD and assigned as a required resource in laboratory exercises. Investigation of student attitudes towards the tutorial demonstrates a high level of approval, and subject m...

The notion of constructivism is serving as the underpinning for many of the current reforms in science education and has been one of the most influential themes in science education for the past 20 years. This study was designed to investigate the attitudes of earth-science students toward a constructivist teaching approach. Eighty-six ninth-grade students enrolled in two earth-science classes were chosen to participate in the study. A five point Likert-style questionnaire with ten items was administered to the participants to explore their opinions of this teaching method during a six-week intervention. Results of the affective-domain survey strongly suggest that the students held no particular attitudes toward this learning style; yet, they all expressed their understanding of the advantages of the constructivist teaching method in terms of helping them develop science-process skills, improving their thinking skills, and providing opportunities to apply their own ideas. In addition, we also found that s...

This study examined the effects of a problem-solving-based instructional model on Earth science students' achievement and alternative frameworks. The investigations employed a pre-test/post-test control group design to detect any significant change. The 172 participants enrolled in four Earth science classes received six weeks of the problem-solving-based instruction. Selected items from Taiwan Entrance Examinations for Senior High School were used to measure students' achievement in Earth science content. An open-ended question instrument was developed by the researchers to examine students' conceptual change. Results of an analysis of covariance on achievement post-test scores revealed that the problem-solving-based instructional model did significantly improve the achievement of students (p < 0.05), especially at the application level p < 0.05. A chi-square analysis on students' alternative frameworks measure indicated that students who were taught using the problem-solving-based instructional model di...

The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of inquiry-based teaching and traditional teaching on student learning of earth-science concepts at the secondary-school level. A quasi-experimental non-equivalent control-group design was employed to identify any significant gains in student achievement. Students chosen to participate in the study included 232 earth-science students (9th grade) enrolled in six earth-science classes. The experimental group received two weeks of the inquiry-based instruction, whereas the control group received the traditional lecture-type instruction. Selected items from the Taiwan Indicators of Educational Progress in Science Process Skills and Taiwan Entrance Examinations for Senior High School were used to measure student learning of earth-science concepts. The data were analyzed with an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) on posttest scores with pretest as the covariate. The results indicated that students taught using inquiry-based instructional method scored significan...

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a self-regulated strategy on immediate recall and retention of science knowledge in community-college anatomy and physiology students who participated in a 14-hour (8 weeks) study skills class. The class emphasized the recognition of five common science textbook text structures (cause and effect, classification, enumeration, generalization, and sequence) and the construction of graphic postorganizers of the text structures. A pretest, two immediate posttests, and a retention posttest were used to measure recall and retention. Results indicated that on immediate posttests students who actively constructed graphic postorganizers of the test structure recalled significantly more content than did the control students who simply underlined, reread, or highlighted. On a 3-week retention posttest, those students in the study skills class retained significantly more of the material studied than did the control group of students.

The purpose of this paper is threefold. First, we set out to describe a context for understanding events that fuel the need to reform secondary science education in Texas. Next, we present the results of a survey of the knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes of a group of central Texas science teachers related to implementing Coordinated Thematic Science (CTS) instruction, who were surveyed after field testing preliminary CTS instructional materials. Last, we argue that caution must be exercised in the design of inservice programs to prepare life science teachers in Texas to teach a coordinated thematic Science I course to rising Grade 7 students by the target date of Fall, 1994.

A collision is a physical phenomenon commonly occurring in our daily life. In the classroom, the instructor usually demonstrates collision to enhance students' conceptual understanding of momentum conservation and kinetic energy conservation in collisions.1–3 The results of such demonstrations illustrate that the total linear momentum and the kinetic energy for elastic collisions in a system are similar both before and after the collision.4 Demonstrating the momentum and kinetic energy while the two objects are in the process of colliding can provide greater insight into these concepts. Such demonstration results during the collision are rarely described, however, because the time during the collision process is very brief, making the determination of the velocity or momentum of each object very difficult.5 In this paper, we intend to present an interactive demonstration6 proposed to illustrate the results of momentum conservation and kinetic energy conservation simultaneously for the entire collision.