Student Learning about Twelve Features of the Nature of Science

Abstract

Five Teacher Leaders organized a study regarding two of their sections of 8–9th grade science. One section was the experimental section where twelve constituents of the Nature of Science (NOS) were used as an added consideration to activities, discussions, projects, and focus for all aspects of science content. The control section was a typical one where STS approaches were used without any conscientious efforts to add appropriate NOS considerations. Significant differences were found regarding student improvement and understanding of the twelve NOS constructs that were utilized; no such differences were noted in the control sections for the five teachers.