Internet Environments for Science Education synthesizes 25 years of research to identify effective, technology-enhanced ways to convert students into lifelong science learners--one inquiry project at a time. It offers design principles for development of innovations; features tested, customizable inquiry projects that students, teachers, and professional developers can enact and refine; and introduces new methods and assessments to investigate the impact of technology on inquiry learning. The methodology--design-based research studies--enables investigators to capture the impact of innovations in the complex, inertia-laden educational enterprise and to use these findings to improve the innovation. The approach--technology-enhanced inquiry--takes advantage of global, networked information resources, sociocognitive research, and advances in technology combined in responsive learning environments. Internet Environments for Science Education advocates leveraging inquiry and technology to reform the full spectrum of science education activities--including instruction, curriculum, policy, professional development, and assessment. The book offers: *the knowledge integration perspective on learning, featuring the interpretive, cultural, and deliberate natures of the learner; *the scaffolded knowledge integration framework on instruction summarized in meta-principles and pragmatic principles for design of inquiry instruction; *a series of learning environments, including the Computer as Learning Partner (CLP), the Knowledge Integration Environment (KIE), and the Web-based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE) that designers can use to create new inquiry projects, customize existing projects, or inspire thinking about other learning environments; *curriculum design patterns for inquiry projects describing activity sequences to promote critique, debate, design, and investigation in science; *a partnership model establishing activity structures for teachers, pedagogical researchers, discipline experts, and technologists to jointly design and refine inquiry instruction; *a professional development model involving mentoring by an expert teacher; *projects about contemporary controversy enabling students to explore the nature of science; *a customization process guiding teachers to adapt inquiry projects to their own students, geographical characteristics, curriculum framework, and personal goals; and *a Web site providing additional links, resources, and community tools at www.InternetScienceEducation.org

A stellar roster of authors explores the role of the Internet is a vital new form of science instruction, authentic Student-Scientist Partnerships. Numerous successful SSPs are detailed in this key resource for scientists, educators, students, administrators, parents, and community leaders interested in nurturing and implementing positive educational change and improvement.

Science teachers come in many varieties, but they share a common goal: to nurture learners. Over the past decade, we have learned a great deal about how to do this effectively. Of all this new (and some not so new) knowledge, what strikes me as most important is that learning occurs best within a context. Still, as obvious as that may seem, it is relatively rare in our high school science classrooms. The problem, of course, is that it is not easy to create a learning experience with hands-on relevance to the science under discussion. Science teachers, in addition to not having the the time, for the most part do not have the expertise or readily available resources. The solution lies in finding ways to bring scientists into the teaching/learning equation. Scientists teamed with teachers and their students represent a very real and rich opportunity to involve students in real science as practiced. Imagine a research book that gives examples of honest, science-research experiences for science-oriented students. What's more, imagine a book that includes examples where students are collaborating with scientists from all over the world on research projects, in person or via the Internet. Internet Linksfor Science Education does just that. It explores the role of the Internet and technol ogy in working student-scientist partnerships.

Science, engineering, and technology permeate nearly every facet of modern life and hold the key to solving many of humanity's most pressing current and future challenges. The United States' position in the global economy is declining, in part because U.S. workers lack fundamental knowledge in these fields. To address the critical issues of U.S. competitiveness and to better prepare the workforce, A Framework for K-12 Science Education proposes a new approach to K-12 science education that will capture students' interest and provide them with the necessary foundational knowledge in the field. A Framework for K-12 Science Education outlines a broad set of expectations for students in science and engineering in grades K-12. These expectations will inform the development of new standards for K-12 science education and, subsequently, revisions to curriculum, instruction, assessment, and professional development for educators. This book identifies three dimensions that convey the core ideas and practices around which science and engineering education in these grades should be built. These three dimensions are: crosscutting concepts that unify the study of science through their common application across science and engineering; scientific and engineering practices; and disciplinary core ideas in the physical sciences, life sciences, and earth and space sciences and for engineering, technology, and the applications of science. The overarching goal is for all high school graduates to have sufficient knowledge of science and engineering to engage in public discussions on science-related issues, be careful consumers of scientific and technical information, and enter the careers of their choice. A Framework for K-12 Science Education is the first step in a process that can inform state-level decisions and achieve a research-grounded basis for improving science instruction and learning across the country. The book will guide standards developers, teachers, curriculum designers, assessment developers, state and district science administrators, and educators who teach science in informal environments.

In the spirit of encouraging international dialogue between researchers and practitioners, often working within isolated traditions, this book discusses perspectives on science education for the gifted informed by up-to-date research findings from a number of related fields. The book reviews philosophy, culture and programmes in science education for the gifted in diverse national contexts, and includes scholarly reviews of significant perspectives and up-to-date research methods and findings. The book is written in a straightforward style for students studying international perspective modules on undergraduate, but especially masters and doctoral degrees in Science Education and Gifted Education. Gifted education has come to be regarded as a key national programme in many countries, and gifted education in science disciplines is now of major importance to economic and technological development. Despite these national initiatives and developments, there are very few discussions on gifted education in science from international perspectives. This will be a valued addition to the scholarship in this emergent field.

This open access book engages with the response-ability of science education to Indigenous ways-of-living-with-Nature. Higgins deconstructs the ways in which the structures of science education—its concepts, categories, policies, and practices—contribute to the exclusion (or problematic inclusion) of Indigenous science while also shaping its ability respond. Herein, he undertakes an unsettling homework to address the ways in which settler colonial logics linger and lurk within sedimented and stratified knowledge-practices, turning the gaze back onto science education. This homework critically inhabits culture, theory, ontology, and history as they relate to the multicultural science education debate, a central curricular location that acts as both a potential entry point and problematic gatekeeping device, in order to (re)open the space of responsiveness towards Indigenous ways-of-knowing-in-being.

Educational researchers are bound to see this as a timely work. It brings together the work of leading experts in argumentation in science education. It presents research combining theoretical and empirical perspectives relevant for secondary science classrooms. Since the 1990s, argumentation studies have increased at a rapid pace, from stray papers to a wealth of research exploring ever more sophisticated issues. It is this fact that makes this volume so crucial.