A large number of American elementary school students are now studying science using the hands‐on inquiry curricula developed in the 1990s: Insights; Full Option Science System (FOSS); and Science and Technology for Children (STC). A goal of these programs, echoed in the National Science Education Standards, is that children should gain “abilities to do scientific inquiry” and “understanding about scientific inquiry.” We have studied the degree to which students can do inquiries by using four hands‐on performance assessments, which required one or three class periods. To be fair, the assessments avoided content that is studied in depth in the hands‐on programs. For a sample of about 1000 fifth grade students, we compared the performance of students in hands‐on curricula with an equal number of students with textbook curricula. The students were from 41 classrooms in nine school districts. The results show little or no curricular effect. There was a strong dependence on students' cognitive ability, as measured with a standard multiple‐choice instrument. There was no significant difference between boys and girls. Also, there was no difference on a multiple‐choice test, which used items released from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). It is not completely clear whether the lack of difference on the performance assessments was a consequence of the assessments, the curricula, and/or the teaching. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 43: 467–484, 2006

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Computer visualizations can be a powerful tool for teaching students about science. But educational visualizations need to be designed with students in mind so that the interface is not only easy to use, but also helps students understand the science that is being visualized. This study looks at the design of visualization tools for middle school students learning thermodynamics. Educational research suggested that a dot-density representation of temperature would help students understanding. Assessments of the visualizations show a significant effect on students' understanding.

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In order to understand many of the important ideas in materials science, students need to have some understanding of crystal structure and symmetry. But many undergraduate students find crystal symmetry a difJicult and highly abstract subject. One of the reasons for this is the use of difJicult 2 -0 representations of complicated 3-0 structures. Although many teachers use physical models to help give their students a sense of the structure, physical models are limited in the informution they can provide. Using computers to visualize the crystal structure provides flexibility and the ability to link related concepts like symmetry or close packing. This paper reports on CrystalVis, a new visualization tool for crystal structures that is under development at UC Berkeley. The CrystalVis program displays crystals in a variety of ways allowing the student to rotate and zoom in on the crystal so as to get a better sense of the 3-0 structure. The program has just begun to be used in classes at UCB both as a lecture aid and for students to get hands on experience with crystal structures. The paper reports on the results from these classes and the plans for use the program in the future.