Perceived Helpfulness and Amount of Use of Technology in Science and Mathematics Classes at Different Grade Levels

Use of technology in science and mathematics classes has been increasing, but there are differences in the amount of use of and students' perceptions of its helpfulness across grade levels and subject areas. Technology was reported as used only occasionally. Technology was used most often to understand or explore in more depth concepts taught in class. The second most frequent use was as a tool of investigation or assessment. The lowest reported use of technology was as tool of communication. Students in middle school classes perceived technology as less helpful than did students in elementary or high school classes. Students in mathematics classes perceived technology as more helpful than did students in science classes. Girls perceived technology as more helpful than did boys. Additionally, teacher and student perceptions of amount of use varied with teachers reporting more use than students.     

The Contribution of Conceptual Change Texts Accompanied by Concept Mapping to Students' Understanding of the Human Circulatory System

The present study was conducted to investigate the contribution of conceptual change texts accompanied by concept mapping instruction to 10^th— grade students' understanding of the human circulatory system. To determine misconceptions concerning the human circulatory system, 10 eleventh-grade students were interviewed. In the light of the findings obtained from student interviews and related literature, the Human Circulatory System Concepts Test was developed. The data were obtained from 26 students in the experimental group taught with the conceptual change texts accompanied by concept mapping, and 23 students in the control group taught with the traditional instruction. Besides treatment, previous learning in biology and science process skills were other independent variables involved in this study. Multiple Regression Correlation analysis revealed that science process skill, the treatment, and previous learning in biology each made a statistically significant contribution to the variation in students' understanding of the human circulatory system. It was found that the conceptual change texts accompanied by concept mapping instruction produced a positive effect on students' understanding of concepts. The mean scores of experimental and control groups showed that students in the experimental group performed better with respect to the human circulatory system. Item analysis was carried out to determine and compare the proportion of correct responses and misconceptions of students in both groups. The average percent of correct responses of the experimental group was 59.8%, and that of the control group was 51.6% after treatment.     

The Advantages of an STS Approach Over a Typical Textbook Dominated Approach in Middle School Science

Two sections of middle school science were taught by two longtime teachers where one used an STS approach and the other followed the more typical textbook approach closely. Pre‐ and post assessments were administered to one section of students for each teacher. The testing focused on student concept mastery, general science achievement, concept applications, use of concepts in new situations, and attitudes toward science. Videotapes of classroom actions were recorded and analyzed to determine the level of the use of STS teaching strategies in the two sections. Information was also be collected that gave evidence of and noted changes in student creativity and the continuation of student learning and the use of it beyond the classroom. Major findings indicate that students experiencing the STS format where constructivist teaching practices were used to (a) learn basic concepts as well as students who studied them directly from the textbook, (b) achieve as much in terms of general concept mastery as students who studied almost exclusively by using a textbook closely, (c) apply science concepts in new situations better than students who studied science in a more traditional way, (d) develop more positive attitudes about science, (e) exhibit creativity skills more often and more uniquely, and (f) learn and use science at home and in the community more than did students in the textbook dominated classroom.     

The Effects of a Mathematics Infusion Curriculum on Middle School Student Mathematics Achievement

Increasing mathematical competencies of American students has been a focus for educators, researchers, and policy makers alike. One purported approach to increase student learning is through connecting mathematics and science curricula. Yet there is a lack of research examining the impact of making these connections. The Mathematics Infusion into Science Project, funded by the National Science Foundation, developed a middle school mathematics‐infused science curriculum. Twenty teachers utilized this curriculum with over 1,200 students. The current research evaluated the effects of this curriculum on students' mathematics learning and compared effects to students who did not receive the curriculum. Students who were taught the infusion curriculum showed a significant increase in mathematical content scores when compared with the control students.     

Two Teaching Methods and Students' Understanding of Sound

The purpose of this study was to examine fifth grade students' ideas related to sound and to compare the Learning Cycle teaching approach with a textbook/demonstration method of instruction to determine whether one method is more effective in facilitating conceptual change. Thirty-four fifth grade students were randomly selected and assigned to the two treatment groups. To assess the students' understanding of specific sound concepts, an interview protocol was administered to both groups before and immediately after instruction. Students were given a numerical rating corresponding to their levels of understanding. The numerical values for both groups at the pre- and post-interview assessments were analyzed by analysis of variance (ANOVA). Students who were taught using the Learning Cycle had a significantly better understanding.     

Inquiry Learning of High School Students Through a Problem‐Based Environmental Health Science Curriculum

The purpose of this study was to examine the degree to which high school students improved their inquiry capabilities in relation to scientific literacy through their experience of a problem‐based environmental health science curriculum. The two inquiry capabilities studied were scientific questioning and approaches to inquiry into their own questions. A total of 129 high school students taught by two teachers in one school wrote responses to environmental health issues at the beginning and at the end of a 10‐week long inquiry curriculum. An additional group of 46 students of one of the two teachers learned an alternative curriculum and participated as a comparison group. The students using the inquiry curriculum performed significantly better than those using the alternative curriculum in posing active inquiry questions and generating hypothesis‐driven approaches to inquiry into their questions. The inquiry curriculum students also improved significantly from the pretest to the posttest in both measures of inquiry capacity. Among the students who were less prepared for inquiry in the beginning, 68% improved inquiry‐questioning capability, while among the students who were more prepared for inquiry, 36% improved in generating hypotheses‐driven approaches. Implications for curriculum design and implementation were provided along with further research suggestions.     

Using the Tower of Hanoi puzzle to infuse your mathematics classroom with computer science concepts

This article suggests that logic puzzles, such as the well-known Tower of Hanoi puzzle, can be used to introduce computer science concepts to mathematics students of all ages. Mathematics teachers introduce their students to computer science concepts that are enacted spontaneously and subconsciously throughout the solution to the Tower of Hanoi puzzle. These concepts include, but are not limited to, conditionals, iteration, and recursion. Lessons, such as the one proposed in this article, are easily implementable in mathematics classrooms and extracurricular programmes as they are good candidates for ‘drop in’ lessons that do not need to fit into any particular place in the typical curriculum sequence. As an example for readers, the author describes how she used the puzzle in her own Number Sense and Logic course during the federally funded Upward Bound Math/Science summer programme for college-intending low-income high school students. The article explains each computer science term with real-life and mathematical examples, applies each term to the Tower of Hanoi puzzle solution, and describes how students connected the terms to their own solutions of the puzzle. It is timely and important to expose mathematics students to computer science concepts. Given the rate at which technology is currently advancing, and our increased dependence on technology in our daily lives, it has become more important than ever for children to be exposed to computer science. Yet, despite the importance of exposing today's children to computer science, many children are not given adequate opportunity to learn computer science in schools. In the United States, for example, most students finish high school without ever taking a computing course. Mathematics lessons, such as the one described in this article, can help to make computer science more accessible to students who may have otherwise had little opportunity to be introduced to these increasingly important concepts.     

Modelling in Science Lessons: Are There Better Ways to Learn With Models?

Modelling is the essence of scientific thinking, and models are both the methods and products of science. However, secondary students usually view science models as toys or miniatures of real-life objects, and few students actually understand why scientists use multiple models to explain concepts. A conceptual typology of models is presented and explained to help teachers select models appropriate to the cognitive ability of their students. An example explains how the systematic presentation of analogical models enhanced an 11th-grade chemistry student's understanding of atoms and molecules. The article recommends that teachers encourage their students to use and explore multiple models in science lessons at all levels.     

Using Form and Function Analogy Object Boxes to Teach Human Body Systems

This study compares the use of form and function analogy object boxes to more traditional lecture and worksheet instruction during a 10th‐grade unit on human body systems. The study was conducted with two classes (N= 32) of mixed ability students at a high‐needs rural high school in central New York State. The study used a pretest/posttest design, in which the two classes alternated between conditions for the four systems (skeletal, digestive, immune, nervous). Both conditions involved students in quality instruction addressing the same concepts for the same amount of time. Additionally, all students participated in hands‐on labs. The experimental condition presented students with a set of objects analogous in form and function to parts of a human body system. Students matched objects with cards describing body system parts, mapped the analogies on a chart, generated alternative objects that could be used for the analogy, and finally, created new analogies for other body system parts. Students made significantly higher posttest and gain scores on material learned in the experimental condition, with a mean gain score average of 12.4 points out of 25, compared to 6.2 points in the control condition. Cohen's Effect Size was large, 1.36.     

Effect of Similarity-Based Guided Discovery Learning on Conceptual Performance

Analogies are known to foster concept learning, whereas discovery learning is effective for transfer. By combining discovery learning and analogies or similarities of concepts, attractive new arrangements emerge, but do they maintain both concept and transfer effects? Unfortunately, there is a lack of data confirming such combined effectiveness. This experimental study involving 280 young students in the domain of physics showed that adequately structured similarities between mechanics and geometry improves conceptual performance (perception of functional relations) by as much for discovery learning as for conventional teaching texts with questions. Adequate structures were provided following Glynn's teaching with analogy model. The learning form had no significant impact on concept performance. The effect of similarity increased when the level of difficulty of the treatment was raised. These results were found using a 2 × 2-factorial design. A qualitative questionnaire provided individual information about the usefulness of similarities and about learning strategies of the participants.     

Re‐creating a Recipe for Science Instructional Programs: Adding Learning Progressions,Scaffolding, and a Dash of Reading Variety

The purpose of this article is to focus on the development and refinement of a science instructional design program arguing for the feasibility and usability of integrated reading and science instruction as implemented in third‐ and fourth‐grade science classrooms to meet the learning needs of diverse learners. These instructional components are easily inserted into existing programs that build students' science background knowledge and abilities to apply learning through scaffolded activities focused on (1) providing structured opportunities for students to engage in hands‐on activities; (2) increasing vocabulary knowledge and understanding of concept‐laden terms, and (3) reading paired narrative and informational science texts. Extensive research shows that as students transition from third to fourth grade and beyond, they are often challenged in science by new vocabulary coupled with new concepts. Active ingredients of our reconceptualized science instructional design program are narrative informational texts, hands‐on science activities, and science textbook(s).     

Using Similarities and Differences: A Meta‐Analysis of Its Effects and Emergent Patterns

The purpose of the study was to update previous meta‐analytic findings on the effectiveness of using similarities and differences as an instructional strategy. The strategy includes facilitating student comparison, classification, use of analogies, and use of metaphors. Previously, Marzano, Pickering, and Pollock reported a mean effect size of 1.61. For the present meta‐analysis, literature was searched to locate experimental studies meeting the following inclusion criteria: published between 1998 and 2008; examined effects of facilitating student comparison, classification, use of analogies, and use of metaphors; measured student academic achievement as an outcome; involved students in kindergarten through grade 12; and provided data necessary to compute effect sizes. Based on the eligible research, the overall mean effect size (Hedges' g) was .65, confirming earlier results indicating that using similarities and differences positively influences student achievement. Type of control group, however, moderated the effect. Larger effect sizes were associated with control groups receiving textbook‐guided instruction versus those receiving interactive instruction. Emergent patterns were observed for the positive influence of long‐term instruction, systematic instruction, supportive cuing, and opportunity for reflection and discussion. Results support recommendations to guide students through analogical reasoning about, and classification of, important concepts and relationships in content‐area instruction.     

Assessing the Impact of Bridging Analogies in Mechanics

The effects of bridging analogies teaching strategy and gender on Turkish high school students' misconceptions in mechanics were investigated. After a pilot study with 67 students in a nearby high school, the researchers administered the revised Mechanics Misconception Test to 119 high school students as a pretest. Students in the experimental group were instructed by using bridging analogies teaching strategy. At the end of a 3‐week treatment period, the same test was administered to all students as a posttest. The data were analyzed by using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). The statistical results showed that bridging analogies teaching strategy was an effective means of reducing the number of misconceptions students held about normal forces, frictional forces, tension, gravity, inertia, and Newton's third law.     

Do students really understand what an ordinary differential equation is?

Differential equations (DEs) are important in mathematics as well as in science and the social sciences. Thus, the study of DEs has been included in various courses in different departments in higher education. The importance of DEs has attracted the attention of many researchers who have generally focussed on the content and instruction of DEs. However, DEs are complex issues that students may find difficulty to understand. The limited research in this literature points to the need for more studies on students’ conceptions, and understanding of DEs and their basic concepts. The objective of this study is to fill this need by revealing the understanding, difficulties and weaknesses of the students who are successful in algebraic solutions, in relation to the concepts of DEs and their solutions. For this purpose, 77 students were asked 13 DE questions (6 of them about algebraic solution, and the rest about interpreting DEs and their solutions). From an analysis of the students’ answers, it was concluded that the students who were quite successful in algebraic solutions, indeed did not fully understand the related concepts, and they had serious difficulties in relation to these concepts.     

The Influence of Mind Mapping on Eighth Graders’ Science Achievement

This study assessed the influence of using mind maps as a learning tool on eighth graders’ science achievement, whether such influence was mediated by students’ prior scholastic achievement, and the relationship between students’ mind maps and their conceptual understandings. Sixty‐two students enrolled in four intact sections of a grade 8 science classroom were randomly assigned to experimental and comparison conditions. Participants in the experimental group received training in, and constructed, mind maps throughout a science unit. Engagement with mind mapping was counterbalanced with involving the comparison group participants with note summarization to control for time on task as a confounding variable. Otherwise, the intervention was similar for both groups in all respects. A multiple choice test was used to measure student gains across two categories and three levels of achievement. Data analyses indicated that the experimental group participants achieved statistically significant and substantially higher gains than students in the comparison group. The gains were not mediated by participants’ prior scholastic achievement. Analyses also indicated that iconography was not as central to participants’ mind maps as often theorized. Depicting accurate links between central themes and major and minor concepts, and using colors to represent concepts were the major aspects that differentiated the mind maps built by students who achieved higher levels of conceptual understanding.     

The Influence of Science Summer Camp on African‐American High School Students' Career Choices

This study explored if a weeklong science camp changed Louisiana African‐American high school students' perception of science. A semi‐structured survey was used before and after the camp to determine the changes in science attitudes and career choices. Among the perceived benefits were parental involvement, increased science academic ability, and deepened scientific knowledge. These perceived benefits influenced the identities that students constructed for themselves in relation to science in their lives. Students who reported doing well in school science courses believed that science was more relevant to their lives. Female students who cited doing well in science reported less parental involvement in their schoolwork than males. This study draws attention to gender differences in science and to designing informal science learning experiences for African‐American high school students that can change attitudes toward career choices in science‐related fields.     

Drawing inferences from learners’ examples and questions to inform task design and develop learners’ spatial knowledge

Examples that learners generate, and questions they ask while generating examples, are both sources for inferring about learners’ thinking. We investigated how inferences derived from each of these sources relate, and how these inferences can inform task design aimed at advancing students’ knowledge of scale factor enlargement (i.e. scaling). The study involved students in two secondary schools in England who were individually tasked to generate examples of scale factor enlargements in relation to specifically designed prompts. Students were encouraged to raise questions while generating their examples. We drew inferences about students’ thinking from their examples and, where available, from their questions. These inferences informed our design and implementation of a set of follow-up tasks for all students, and an additional personalised task for each student who raised any questions. Students showed increased knowledge of, and confidence with, scale factor enlargement independently of whether they asked questions during the exemplification task.     

Biomedical Engineering and Cognitive Science as the Basis for Secondary Science Curriculum Development: A Three Year Study

This study reports on a multiyear effort to create and evaluate cognitive‐based curricular materials for secondary school science classrooms. A team of secondary teachers, educational researchers, and academic biomedical engineers developed a series of curriculum units that are based in biomedical engineering for secondary level students in physics and advanced biology classes. These units made use of an instructional design based upon recent cognitive science research called the Legacy Cycle. Over a 3‐year period, comparison of student knowledge on written questions related to central concepts in physics and/or biology generally favored students who had worked with the experimental materials over students in control classrooms. In addition, experimental students were better able to solve applications type problems, as well as unit‐specific near transfer problems.     

Doing Is Believing: Do Laboratory Experiences Promote Conceptual Change?

The present study examined whether notions students hold about scientific concepts are impacted by generating and testing hypotheses. Students enrolled in three ninth grade physical science classes were asked to select and test two student-generated hypotheses concerning flotation. Conceptual change was assessed by concept maps and word sorting activities administered at three points in the investigation (pre, mid, and post). Lawson's Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning (CTSR) and the Integrated Test of Process Skills (TIPS) were used to assess scientific reasoning ability and proficiency with science process skills, respectively. Twenty-one of 63 students enrolled in the course completed the battery of assessment items and met the classroom attendance requirement. Those 21 students represented the data sample. Students selecting and investigating the hypothesis that weight determines an object's ability to float generally changed their notion of the relationship between weight and flotation. Students investigating the hypothesis that shape determines an object's ability to float did not exhibit conceptual change regarding shape.     

Assessment of numeracy in sports and exercise science students at an Australian university

The effect of high school study of mathematics on numeracy performance of sports and exercise science (SES) students is not clear. To investigate this further, we tested the numeracy skills of 401 students enrolled in a Bachelor of Health Sciences degree in SES using a multiple-choice survey consisting of four background questions and 39 numeracy test questions. Background questions (5-point scale) focused on highest level of mathematics studied at high school, self-perception of mathematics proficiency, perceived importance of mathematics to SES and likelihood of seeking help with mathematics. Numeracy questions focused on rational number, ratios and rates, basic algebra and graph interpretation. Numeracy performance was based on answers to these questions (1 mark each) and represented by the total score (maximum = 39). Students from first (n = 212), second (n = 78) and third (n = 111) years of the SES degree completed the test. The distribution of numeracy test scores for the entire cohort was negatively skewed with a median (IQR) score of 27(11). We observed statistically significant associations between test scores and the highest level of mathematics studied (P < 0.05), being lowest in students who studied Year 10 Mathematics (20 (9)), intermediate in students who studied Year 12 General Mathematics (26 (8)) and highest in two groups of students who studied higher-level Year 12 Mathematics (31 (9), 31 (6)). There were statistically significant associations between test scores and level of self-perception of mathematics proficiency and also likelihood of seeking help with mathematics (P < 0.05) but not with perceived importance of mathematics to SES. These findings reveal that the level of mathematics studied in high school is a critical factor determining the level of numeracy performance in SES students.