This paper by Mujtaba and Reiss explores tendencies in girls’ and boys’ motivations, attitudes, and perceptions toward studying physics after age 16. Findings suggest that girls who want to continue studying physics understand the material and social benefits it affords. They are also more competitive than other students. However, in general, they have less confidence in their abilities than boys.
A comparison of survey data from 2000 and 2009 supports findings that the California Science Center in Los Angeles provides opportunities for public engagement in science that may not be supported by other education resources. Survey evidence correlates the community’s use of the science center with improvements in science engagement and science literacy.
Dahlstrom and Ho offer advice on using narrative to communicate about science. They conclude that the rhetorical purpose of the narrative should be thoroughly examined so as not to unfairly influence a reader or listener.
To support discussion of tinkering-based learning, the Exploratorium sought to articulate and refine a valid, evidence-based definition of learning in its on-floor "Tinkering Studio." We studied 50 learners and their companions in one of three facilitated tinkering activities in the Tinkering Studio. A team of researchers and practitioners used the videos to refine frameworks for learning and facilitation (initially developed in a prior project), leading to four Dimensions of Learning and three broad Facilitation Moves. We created a Library of Exemplars that categorizes over one hundred video
This paper examines how students, teachers, and parents evaluate residential fieldwork courses. As in prior research, findings from questionnaire data indicate that fieldwork effects social, affective, and behavioural learning. More surprisingly, focus group interviews captured increases in cognitive learning as well. This paper underscores the value of out-of-school experiences, particularly for students from under-resourced backgrounds.
Do teachers’ emotions about climate change affect their approach to instruction? Researchers examined the relationships among teachers’ emotions about climate change, their perceptions of the plausibility of the findings of climate science, and their understanding of climate science. The findings paint a complicated picture of the potential effect of emotions on instructional practice.
Research has intimated that engineering design activities can enhance students’ understanding of engineering and technology and can increase their interest in science. Few studies, however, have defined or measured this interest empirically. Dohn examined the effect of an eight-week engineering design competition on 46 sixth-grade students. His findings suggest that design tasks can indeed stimulate interest. He found four main sources of interest: designing inventions, trial-and-error experimentation, making the inventions work, and collaboration.
This study helps us understand how children and adolescents perceive science and scientists, and it suggests some factors that influence those images. Researchers collected drawings from Catalan students ages 6 to 17 and analyzed them using the Draw-A-Scientist Test (Chambers, 1983). Findings show that, in general, Catalan students, and particularly boys over 12, retained classic stereotypes of scientists.
Brewer and Ley surveyed 851 participants in a U.S. city and revealed relationships among demographic characteristics, religious beliefs, political views, and trust in multiple forms of science communication sources.
This Hundal and Keselman paper describes the design of an afterschool curriculum aimed at supporting argumentation skills in the context of environmental health. It frankly describes the tensions between the teachers and researchers in the co-design of the project. It acknowledges differences in perspectives in a way that may guide the co-design efforts of others.
This paper’s findings illustrate the claim that young people’s prior knowledge cannot be separated from the cultural context in which it is situated. Using examples from a longitudinal ethnographic study of 13 children, the authors Bricker and Reeve argue that, in order to understand young people’s thinking and practice, we need to understand the social and cultural systems in which their thinking is embedded.
This analysis of visitors’ experience of the "Congo Gorilla Forest" exhibition at the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Bronx Zoo was commissioned to investigate how this 15 year old exhibition is perceived by visitors, and if things have changed since an original summative evaluation in 1999-2000. Questions of particular interest were: 1. Have the characteristics of visitors seeing this exhibition changed? Has awareness or interest in environmental concepts changed? 2. Is the exhibition still appealing to visitors? 3. Are exhibit components such as the film and Conservation Choices Computers