The purpose of this study was to examine sixth grade students' attitudes and experiences related to science. The study involved 437 students who completed a survey designed to elicit students' perceptions of science and scientists, out‐of‐school science experiences, science topics of interest, and characteristics of future jobs. Results showed that for this sample there continue to be significant gender differences in science experiences, attitudes, and perceptions of science courses and careers. Males reported more extracurricular experiences with a variety of tools such as batteries, electric toys, fuses, microscopes, and pulleys. Females reported more experiences with bread‐making, knitting, sewing, and planting seeds. More male than female students indicated they were interested in atomic bombs, atoms, cars, computers, x‐rays, and technology, whereas more females reported interest in animal communication, rainbows, healthy eating, weather, and AIDS. In addition, when asked about future jobs, male and female students' responses differed by gender. Males saw variables such as controlling other people, becoming famous, earning lots of money, and having a simple and easy job as important. Females, more than males, wanted to “help other people.” Students' perceptions of science showed that significantly more females than males reported that science was difficult to understand, whereas more males reported that science was destructive and dangerous, as well as more “suitable” for boys. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Sci Ed 84:180–192, 2000.

To reduce curricular fragmentation in science education, reform recommendations include using common, unifying themes such as scaling to enhance curricular coherence. This study involved 215 participants from five groups (grades 5, 7, 9, and 12, and doctoral students), who completed written assessments and card sort tasks related to their conceptions of size and scale, and then completed individual interviews. Results triangulated from the data sources revealed the boundaries between and characteristics of scale size ranges that are well distinguished from each other for each group. Results indicate that relative size information was more readily understood than exact size, and significant size landmarks were used to anchor this relational web of scales. The nature of past experiences situated along two dimensions—from visual to kinesthetic in one dimension, and wholistic to sequential in the other—were shown to be key to scale cognition development. Commonalities and differences between the groups are highlighted and discussed. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 43: 282–319, 2006

This study sought further evidence of the concurrent validity of concept mapping as a research and evaluation tool in science education. Specifically, the study examined the extent to which differences exist in the concept maps of advanced college biology majors (N = 25) and beginning nonmajors (N = 25) in the domain of mammals. Furthermore, it explored whether these differences are reflected in the way subjects assign class membership as revealed in a card sorting task. The results indicate that concept maps of biology majors are structurally more complex than those of nonmajors and that differences in the structural complexity and organizational patterns depicted in concept maps are reflected in the underlying dimensions used to assign class membership. Together, these findings suggest that the concept map provides a theoretically powerful and psychometrically sound tool for assessing conceptual change in experimental and classroom settings.

As human beings, we can interact with our environment through the sense of touch, which helps us to build an understanding of objects and events. The implications of touch for cognition are recognized by many educators who advocate the use of "hands-on" instruction. But is it possible to know something more completely by touching it? Does touch promote the construction of more connected and meaningful understandings? Current technology makes the addition of touch to computer-generated environments possible, but the educational implications of this innovation are still largely unknown. This article is a baseline review that examines the role of touch in cognition and learning and explores the research investigating the efficacy of the haptic augmentation of instruction.

Although scale has been identified as one of four major interdisciplinary themes that cut across the science domains by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1989), we are only beginning to understand how students learn and apply scale concepts. Early research on learning scale tended to focus on perceptions of linear distances, navigation and way finding, whereas more recent work has examined how students conceptualize scale in science contexts. This study sought to understand how understandings of scale develop from childhood to adulthood by asking 50 professionals to reflect on their experiences (in and out-of-school) learning about scale. Semi-structured interviews were utilized to obtain information about educational experiences, informal experiences, and applications of scale in different professions. Results showed that most of the participants used anchor points as conceptual benchmarks when applying scale in their job. Seventy-six percent of the participants attributed physical experiences such as moving through the environment by car, walking, bicycling, or flying in an airplane as contributing to the development of a sense of scale. Results of this study were used to develop a possible model of the trajectory of scale concepts that develop as individuals move from novice through increasing degrees of expertise. Across professions, participants emphasized the critical role that scale plays in their work. For many, scale was viewed as central to accomplishing the work-related tasks. ß