Understanding graphs is a necessary component of understanding science communication. Previous work indicated that pre-service science teachers have difficulty with this sort of data interpretation (Bowen, Bartley & Melville, 2025; Bowen et al., 2016). It is suggested that experience in conducting independent field work may be necessary to increase the competency of pre-service science teachers in graphing practices. A previous study (Bowen & Roth, 2005) suggested that an improvement in competency was not gained from engaging in a short-term inquiry project, much as short-term engagements have not improved Nature of Science understandings (Edgerly et al., 2023; Akerson et al., 2006, 2017). Evidence from this study suggests participation in an extended inquiry project did improve several aspects of discourse over and about graphs. Three positive outcomes from engaging in a long-term inquiry project are identified: (1) There was an improved canonical use of inscriptions as demonstrated by a higher use of abstract transformations, (2) There was an increase in the use of external referents, (3) There was an increase in the use of personal experiences to make sense of the components of the data problem and to interpret the relationships. Implications of these findings for preparing science teachers are discussed.

For 10 + years, a citizen science project—TempWatch—has conducted research on climate change using data submitted by the public. Participants, often blue-collar professionals, contributed data on the building/use of backyard rinks and engaged in social media interactions about rink building, climate change, and weather. For this poster, we examine the social media of the TempWatch community whose interests—rinks and hockey—lie tangentially, almost orthogonally, to the climate change research concerns of the scientists. Our research questions address the following: In what manner does climate change discourse arise in the virtual social milieu among TempWatch proximal (those who run the project) and distal (those who contribute raw data to the project) participants? How do proximal and distal participants encounter and respond to that public discourse on issues of climate change and beyond? Findings include insights into community induction/building; participant knowledge growth; the rise of an ‘elite’ participant class; and the use of nostalgia to drive participation. We wonder, ‘is this a climate change education entry point, or another exclusion point?’. Today, Canadians still spend countless hours skating on backyard rinks, frozen lakes and rivers across the country. The International Ice Hockey Federation estimates that there are about 5,000 outdoor ice rinks across Canada today, almost twice as many as there are indoor rinks.

This study pursued two major objectives. The first was to use bibliometric techniques to examine bidirectionality in the relationship between teachers and researchers, as indicated by collaborative authorship among these communities. The second was to explore more deeply knowledge mobilization to classrooms by documenting the extent to which research is cited in science education practitioner journals (SEPJ). Specifically, we examined: (a) the frequency of collaboration between researchers and practitioners in the writing of journal articles for both practitioner‐focused and academic journals in science education, and (b) the extent to which authors of articles in practitioner‐focused journals drew on academic research to support their advocacy for and/or description of science education programs, policies, or practices. Findings indicate that writing collaborations among academic researchers and practitioners are relatively infrequent, even on practitioner‐focused articles. Also, articles in SEPJs more often cite books and other resources over academic journals, even those academic journals focused on informing science education teaching and learning. Recommendations include providing open access to published research, development of research summaries for lay audiences, and incentivizing practitioners to engage in research and writing. This study explores only one mechanism by which knowledge can be mobilized to classrooms and only one type of dissemination product (i.e., journal articles) upon which researchers and practitioners can collaborate. Additional limitations are noted including the applicability of the findings only to the specific journals and timeframes analyzed.

The aim of this study was to map the current status of STEM education in Kazakhstan. The study encompasses 24 studies selected through a literature search in Google Scholar, ERIC, Web of Science, and Scopus. The descriptive characteristics of the reviewed studies reveal a significant increase in STEM education publications in Kazakhstan since 2019, indicating a growing emphasis on this field. The reviewed studies, spanning the years 2019 to 2023, included diverse formats such as journal articles, conference proceedings, book chapters, theses, and review articles. Notably, the reviewed studies involved participants from both K-12 and university levels, with a particular focus on female students in some studies. The thematically organized findings of the reviewed studies highlighted challenges faced by STEM education in Kazakhstan, including students’ perceptions about STEM subjects and careers, school environment and educational culture, and societal and gendered expectations. Creating interactive learning environments, addressing biases, dismantling gender stereotypes, and challenging traditional norms were identified as crucial steps to encourage the participation of young women in STEM disciplines. This study contributes to understanding STEM education in Kazakhstan and provides a foundation for future cross-country comparisons, emphasizing the necessity for adaptable approaches in designing and evaluating STEM initiatives in evolving educational contexts.

Various robot and programming technologies are being introduced into primary schools and early learning centres for use by younger children. One type of these technologies, generally described as floor robots, is the Bee-Bot®, which is an easily programmable robot technology intended for early learners. In 2015, the Bee-Bot was introduced into elementary schools across the province of Nova Scotia. Apart from being able to introduce young learners to aspects of computational thinking, floor robots can also be used as a foundation for teaching subjects such as science, mathematics, and language and literacy. This chapter examines Internet resources for educators interested in learning how to use a Bee-Bot with their students, provides details on what information is available in those resources, and assesses a subset of them with regard to their complexity regarding the activities for students. These resources included websites, blogs, news media articles, Pinterest, YouTube videos, and curriculum resources such as Teachers Pay Teachers and Share My Lessons. Our survey of these resources suggests that, although there is a wide variety available in a variety of subject areas, most offer only superficial guidance for using Bee-Bots with early learners and only a minority engage students in depth with the robots.

Since emerging as a concept in the 1990’s STEM and STEM education has become an area of broad interest in Canada in the past 15 years. STEM programs are well-promoted in science faculties at Canadian universities and associated provincial education programs, raising the question as to the degree to which STEM and courses teaching (about) STEM are present in Faculties of Education in Canada. This chapter presents data drawn from Canadian Bachelor of Education (BEd) academic calendars (n = 56), Canadian academic conferences where research on STEM in BEd programs would be presented (n = 17), and publications from the Council of Ministers of Education to understand what STEM opportunities are available to prospective teachers. Four detailed, narrative descriptions of STEM courses at four faculties of education provide examples of the types of offerings available in Canadian teacher training programs. Overall, we report that in Canadian BEd programs few STEM courses are offered—and even fewer STEM programs—raising questions about the support offered by BEd programs for STEM school initiatives that exist both provincially and federally. Implications of this are discussed.

As a science teacher I often tried to "shift" the viewing of the world by my middle-school students from being very human-centric towards one that was more focused on the world as experienced by the organisms in the (eco)systems we were studying, to think about the world from the "level" of the organisms and the richness of the lived experiences they were having. One approach I used was showing them scenes from the movie "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" where the world view of the human participants was considerably shrunken to that where they could "ride" on the back of a bee and experience simple rainfall as a small organism would. I used Barbara McClintock's description of her thinking like corn, trying to imagine what it would be like to be corn (see Keller, 1983; Henry, 1997), as a foundation for my thinking on this as a teacher, and engaged my students in science talks (Gallas, 1995) to get them to start thinking about the world in more complex ways, in some senses as experienced by other organisms and from a different point-of-view, a different perspective and scale, than humans doing science usually start from. – GMB

School science is often very different from "real world" science. One important difference, and possibly the main one, is that in school science the relationships between variables have often been sanitized - essentially "cleaned up" - so that there is very little (and often no) variation in the data from the relationship students are being taught about. This happens because school science often (a) deals with "settled" or "consensus" science where scientists have essentially agreed on what the relationships between the variables are; (b) involves bivariate (i.e., two-variable) relationships where all other variables that might be in a "real world" relationship have been identified and are removed from the example dataset/activity (e.g., minimizing friction so it becomes negligible to understand movement); and, (c) involve known "controlled variables" that can be easily controlled to reduce their influence on the outcomes. This type of removal of variation is problematic as it can make it more difficult for students to learn about, understand, and make sense of "real world" data relationships outside of school settings. It is therefore important for them to engage in school investigations that help them learn to make sense of data with considerable variation in the measured variables. This paper describes and discusses such an activity.

Considering the number of students who participate in them each year, science fairs are an under-researched area of science education. As part of a broader research agenda examining and conceptualizing science fairs, in this study we interviewed parents who had children who had participated in science fairs and were now in university. Parents discussed their role in working with their children, what understandings of science were held and were developed through these activities, and how they perceived the overall science fair experience that their child (or children) had. Using three representative cases, from a phenomenological perspective, we describe assistance ranging from providing some technical support and encouragement to a parent who hired graphic designers to create the poster for the science fair. Implications of these interviews may be useful for schools and science fair organizers/judges.

This section has four papers that have dealt with the content preparation of pre-service science teachers (PSTs) so that they would have a more adequate background for teaching science. The research in these PST-focused content courses examines the role of the instructor and the practices they engage in, to understand the outcomes in these courses from a variety of perspectives. Each paper draws from a variety of methodological and analytical approaches consistent with the self-study perspective (many drawing on Loughran's work (2006) either directly or indirectly as a starting point).

In this chapter we report on three examples of inquiry investigation activities used within each of our “science methods” courses, where we attempted to model what was expected of pre-service teachers in reformed science classrooms, while at the same time providing the students themselves experiences with engaging in an inquiry investigation environment. We provide a detailed elaboration of each example activity, descriptions of student work with examples of data collected and comments recorded in class. Our analysis of common themes within these examples shows that many pre-service teachers have varying degrees of difficulty in working with data in these (quite different) inquiry activities. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for pre-service teacher education in science.

News media presentations of STEM (and particularly science) in various formats have been critiqued for the many ways by which they misrepresent both the facts of the discipline and the practices of the discipline and the researchers in them. Another issue is that the material is presented in a format – basically a one-way transmission – with usually little opportunity for questions by the recipients (i.e., readers, listeners, viewers, etc.) to be addressed when they don’t understand something. One news media format which might allow this dialogic activity is the radio call-in show format which is structured so that the public can ask questions of a “scientist” with the opportunity for follow-up questions to address what are discontinuities in the listener’s understanding. In this paper we document the processes by which listener interests ultimately end up discussed in the radio broadcast and what influences the “science” that is presented on-air. Our analysis reports the ways in which the STEM topics and content are mediated by radio station personnel, often times distorting the factual content available to the public and misrepresenting the practices of the research fields, as they engage in information management practices which are typical of opinion-driven shows (such as those on the topics of politics or sports) which are designed to create controversy and drama to increase ratings.

Socioscientific issues, such as global warming, constitute some of the most significant issues we face in our culture, yet they often appear to be poorly understood by the general public. Why might this be? The public knowledge of socioscientific issues in large part derives from the coverage of these topics in the news media - newspapers, radio and video broadcast (either in the traditional formats or on-line). This chapter, using various case studies, discusses common practices engaged in by journalists (and news media companies) - practices which are essentially within the very DNA of journalistic practice - that contribute to problems with accurate representation of socioscientific issues in the news media and the difficulties the general public has in understanding those issues when they use the news media as a source of information. In discussing the case studies questions arise such as if news media should be trusted to convey those topics, if news media reports should be used to teach subjects such as global warming to students and if so how, or even if students should be learning about those issues in science classrooms at all or if some other venue is more appropriate.

This paper theorizes issues involved with conflicts between participation in on-line settings and real-world social commitments, such as has recently happened in schools with students using public discussion forums. We problematize how real-world social commitments negatively affect participation in online learning environments frequently used in classrooms. Drawing on interviews with, observations by, and written submissions from our students who participated in “hybrid” courses using an approach where identity was concealed in online discussions from other class participants, we discuss implications of this issue for evaluating forum submissions by students. Our analysis uses a cultural-historical activity theory framework to conceptualize implications from this anonymous forum approach and the resultant changes in participation in the learning environment. Cet article élabore une théorie des enjeux associés aux conflits entre la participation dans un environnement en ligne et les engagements sociaux réels, comme ce qui se produit actuellement dans les écoles, les étudiants se servant de forums publics de discussion pour leurs cours. Nous schématisons la façon dont les engagements sociaux réels ont des effets négatifs sur la participation aux environnements d’apprentissage en ligne fréquemment utilisés dans les salles de classe. À partir d’entrevues, d’observations et de communications écrites par les étudiants qui ont participé à nos cours « hybrides » en adoptant une approche par laquelle l’identité était gardée cachée des autres étudiants (mais non des instructeurs) dans les discussions en ligne, nous discutons des implications de cet enjeu dans l’évaluation des soumissions des étudiants dans les forums. Notre analyse se sert d’un cadre théorique de l’activité historico-culturelle pour conceptualiser les implications de cette approche de forum « partiellement anonyme » et les changements de participation qui en résultent dans l’environnement d’apprentissage.

Introduction. The development of video-conference and WebCT technology offers new possibilities for the education of pre-service teachers; opportunities that are only just beginning to be touched on. In this exploratory article, we investigate the opportunities for reflection that technology afforded three pre-service teachers in Canada as they a taught five elementary mathematics lessons to a remote school from their faculty of education.Method. Three pre-service teachers taught a series of mathematics lessons in a remote school via video-conference technology. Between lessons the recordings were reviewed by the pre-service teachers who subsequently engaged in WebCT discussions amongst themselves and their instructor (the third author). These commentaries were analysed in terms of the pre-service teachers‟ level of reflectivity, as either „commonsense thinkers‟ or „alert novices.‟ From this initial analysis, we then investigated three areas which the data suggests are important in assisting pre-service teachers to improve their capacities for reflection.Results. These three areas are: the biography of the pre-service teacher; the provision of content for pre-service teachers‟ reflections, and; the capacity of pre-service teachers to access the reflective opportunities afforded by the technologies.Conclusions. Based on our work, we believe that the increasing interest in utilizing video-conferencing technologies for pre-service teacher education calls for an understanding of these issues as a means for increasing the efficacy of that utilization.

Global warming is perhaps the most significant issue that we face, yet it would appear to be poorly understood by the general public. Their knowledge of global warming science derives almost entirely from its coverage in news media. This article, using various case studies – comparing media publications to the original publications, the creation of a copy story or broadcast, talks given by journalists, and a journalist preparatory program – discusses practices inherent in the practice of journalism that contribute to the difficulties the general public has in understanding socioscientific issues such as global warming. In discussing the case studies the question is asked if news media should be trusted to convey those topics, if it should be used to teach subjects such as global warming to students, or even if they should be learning about those issues in science classes at all.