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Replacing traditional chemistry labs with inquiry-based laboratories that mimic a research project is no easy feat.

In a perfect world, all undergraduate students would participate in a Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE).

As the number of web-based resources for science education increases, evaluation of these websites remains limited.

Evaluating the effectiveness of undergraduate STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) courses requires assessing teaching practices

The Dyslexia Debate Julian G. Elliott and Elena L. Grigorenko Cambridge University Press, 2014. 290 pp.

When teachers collaborate with educational researchers, everyone wins: Teachers focus on their practice and researchers learn about the challenges teachers face.

A controversial study of Romanian orphans reveals long-term harm to the intellect.

A new report from the Royal Society on improving U.K. science and mathematics education contains a lengthy wish list: Upper-level students should take a lot more science and math; more college graduates with science degrees should go into teaching; current teachers should continually upgrade their skills and have a larger voice in the educational process; and the government should de-emphasize the high-stakes tests used to measure student achievement.

Should professors continue to use traditional lectures in undergraduate STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) classrooms?

What happens when science pedagogy goes to business school?

Citizen science and concerns about sustainability can catalyze much-needed synergy between environmental education and science education.

Automated guidance on essays and drawings can improve learning in precollege and college courses.

Strategic investments and coordination are needed for citizen science to reach its full potential.

As science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) instruction begins to shift to a more active approach, how do we best collect and analyze data on how teachers and students spend their classroom time?

Leah Gum's decision to switch from theater into electrical engineering isn't as rare as many experts think.

First-generation college students, where neither parent received a 4-year college degree, tend to perform more poorly and have higher dropout rates than continuing-generation students, who have at least one parent with a 4-year degree.

Support for nontraditional students, team-based quality control, and assessment design are critical.

The preferred way to evaluate science students’ argumentation and communication skills is through written essays and oral interviews.

School-researcher partnerships and large <i>in vivo</i> experiments help focus on useful, effective, instruction.

With nearly 100 volunteers spending a day a week in K-12 classrooms in the D.C. area, and a budding program in Seattle, AAAS is committed to working with scientists and engineers to make scientific literacy possible for all students. Now, thanks to a generous donation from a AAAS Fellow, we are ready to grow these efforts into a nationwide network. Toward that end, AAAS is announcing the pilot stage of the AAAS National STEM Volunteer Program. In 2014, AAAS will award five seed grants of up to $15,000 each to members working with non-profits in their community to bring scientists and engineers into local classrooms in an ongoing and meaningful way. In addition to funding, AAAS will provide resources for developing, implementing, and sustaining the volunteer effort. The deadline for submitting a letter of intent is November 18, 2013, and the full application deadline is December 20, 2013. All grants will be awarded by February 28, 2014. http://membercentral.aaas.org/volunteer/ansvp

The IBI Winner for October has been announced. It is "Inquiry into Radioactivity" out of Black Hills State University. You can download the PDF here. Inquiry into Radioactivity, an IBI prize–winning module, enables students to develop meaningful understandings of ionizing radiation through guided experimentation. The following press release contains an interview with the author where you can learn about the creation of "Inquiry into Radioactivity." http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/aaft-ici101813.php

Welcome to the Science Education Portal, a "one-stop shop" for all of Science Magazine's freely available education content. We will use this blog to highlight available content on the website and to feature relevant science education work.

An evidence-based framework offers a guide for efforts to increase student persistence in STEM majors.

The natural response to the shift toward inquiry-based science education is an increase in faculty-mentored undergraduate research experiences (UREs).

Biologist Steve Robinson is leaving a high-level White House post for a high school in New York City in a career-long quest to understand the secret behind great teaching.

Traditional classrooms, where rows of students face an instructor, may be an obstacle as science education moves toward inquiry-based learning.

Reforms in biology education aim to develop students’ understanding of biological processes in the context of systems, both within and across spatial and temporal scales.

The science education office at the National Institutes of Health may be forced to dump 180 tons of supplemental lessons on a range of health science issues if it loses its funding under a proposed reorganization of federal STEM education programs.

We hope that readers will value in this compilation of winning SPORE Prize essays plus related editorial content.

The SCY ECO mission, an IBI prize–winning module, fosters inquiry learning, collaboration, and design for ecology following a blended learning approach.

Quantitative Trait Mapping, an IBI prize–winning module, immerses students in the role of a systems biology researcher.

Both motivational and cognitive variables play a role in academic achievement.

Root Cause Analysis, an IBI prize–winning module, requires students to use a systematic approach to analyze complex problems.

Goals for literacy, math, and science education may increase citizens’ capacity to argue from evidence.

Evidence is growing on benefits, and approaches, to increase diversity in the science and engineering workforce.

The same attention to scientific detail that led to his Nobel Prize is helping Carl Wieman improve how undergraduates learn science.

Biology 44Y, an IBI prize–winning module, helps students do science by practice, with a focus on plant-pollinator-microbe interactions as a model system.

By Bruce Alberts. I HAVE SEVEN GRANDCHILDREN, AND I WORRY ABOUT THEIR FUTURE. THE NATION THAT I WAS RAISED in, the United States, has clearly lost its way at a time when the world badly needs wise leadership

The Mars Student Imaging Project, an IBI prize–winning module, provides student access to NASA scientists and spacecraft data.

Genomics Explorers, an IBI prize–winning module, engages students with bioinformatics and molecular research.

Scientific literacy, a skill needed beyond the classroom, is being integrated into general education curriculums, resulting in a need to assess students as they develop scientific literacy skills.

Intensive, short-term courses meld students and faculty and new techniques in pursuit of genuine research questions.

Myanmar's universities, benighted after decades of isolation and neglect, are striving to make up lost ground and recover lost student bodies.

Measuring teacher quality is a contentious topic; everyone agrees it should be done, but few can agree on how best to do it.

Macroscopic organisms, even when healthy, harbor diverse microorganisms that influence their development, physiology, and fitness.

If we are to increase the number of women in science, technology, engineering, math, and medicine (STEMM), it is imperative to increase the number of women in STEMM leadership roles.

The use of scientific inquiry in studying plant growth is perhaps as old as agriculture itself.

Ironically, educators themselves hold misconceptions on how best to deal with their students’ preexisting ideas.

Is there any truth to the idea that biology students are interested in science yet are apprehensive about math?

Imagine an undergraduate research project where students are given samples of an uncharacterized plant species.

The topic of earthquakes appears in virtually all introductory undergraduate geoscience courses.

Science education reforms face a daunting challenge: How do we assess skills that cannot be easily automated or digitized?

Math anxiety is a familiar ailment to many adults; however, little is known regarding its neurodevelopmental basis.

An inquiry-based science curriculum requires teachers to generate scientific questions for their students.

Exposing undergraduate students to inquiry and discovery, elements that lie at the core of science, is an effective strategy to lure them into the scientific world.

IN THE 2009 AMERICAN GRADUATION INITIATIVE, PRESIDENT OBAMA ENTHUSIASTICALLY HIGHLIGHTED the importance of community colleges—publicly funded 2-year institutions—for meeting the projected growth in jobs requiring a college degree.

U.S. research universities are being asked to improve instruction, hold down costs, and promote economic growth. Are they up to the challenge?

Despite the growing popularity of online learning, how to grade online discussions remains a challenge.

Individual assistant professors (a total of 2966 faculty) hired in science and engineering since 1990 at 14 United States universities were tracked from time of hire to time of departure by using publicly available catalogs and bulletins.

IN THIS ISSUE OF SCIENCE, WE ARE PUBLISHING THE FIRST OF 15 WINNING ENTRIES FOR the 2011 Science Prize for Inquiry-Based Instruction (p. 418), a laboratory module entitled Light, Sight, and Rainbows.

Studies designed to evaluate the relative educational merit of two modes of laboratory instruction have produced inconsistent results.

THE POOR PERFORMANCE OF U.S. STUDENTS ON INTERNATIONAL MEASURES OF SCIENCE AND MATH has been bemoaned by everyone from the president to concerned parents.

Does the organization of the school calendar affect student learning?

Our understanding of how laboratory materials influence student learning with respect to problem-solving remains limited.

The Earth Exploration Toolbook provides instructions on accessing and analyzing Earth science data to explore scientific concepts and issues.

Joan Lombardi brings experience and energy to the Obama Administration's efforts to better coordinate federal children's health and education programs.

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) graduate students are often encouraged to maximize their engagement with supervised research and minimize teaching obligations.

SCIENCE HAS PUBLISHED THREE EDUCATION SPECIAL ISSUES SINCE I BECAME EDITOR-IN-CHIEF in 2008.

The Boy Scout merit badge program is an informal educational experience allowing Scouts to explore a variety of subjects, including science.

MANY NATIONS NOW SHARE THE COMMON GOAL OF ACHIEVING A HIGH QUALITY OF SCIENCE education at earlier stages of learning.

Computational experiments based on solving fundamental physics equations bring authentic science to the classroom.

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics instructors have been charged with improving the performance and retention of students from diverse backgrounds.

We compared the amounts of learning achieved using two different instructional approaches under controlled conditions.

An innovative nonprofit enables scientists to present inspiring project ideas based on their own research to K–12 students parents, and teachers.

Online mentors inspire interest in science while engaging students in thinking about plant biology.

Educators rely heavily on learning activities that encourage elaborative studying, whereas activities that require students to practice retrieving and reconstructing knowledge are used less frequently.

What would happen if, instead of consulting previous literature, scientists asked children for advice on designing experiments?

Two online projects offer one-stop shopping for teaching evolution, as well as the nature and process of science.

Quality attracts quality in academic research. But is that the best way to achieve economic prosperity?

A South African Web site imparts basic immunology information to clinicians and other health-care workers.

A collection of more than 2000 course syllabi, lecture notes, assignments, and exams is provided free of charge.

An online course takes a systems approach to teaching Environmental Science.

Learning to Read, Reading to Learn

A place is described for faculty to share their teaching expertise and to remain current with advances in geoscience.

Question-asking is a fundamental element of practicing science; however, the teaching of question-asking skills is often overlooked in science education.

Adding a T to the Three R's

Variations in the effective use of analogies in math instruction across countries may contribute to performance differences in the TIMSS studies.

Analysis of elementary school classrooms in the United States returns a discouraging report on the quality of students’ experiences.

Reading instruction benefits from a computerized intervention.

Partnerships between graduate students and high school students in St. Louis benefit both groups, and bring real laboratory experiences to the high school students.

An analysis of students’ academic and social scores compares a Montessori school with other elementary school education programs.

At the University of Colorado at Boulder, involving students in the transformation of science courses raises the visibility of science teaching as a career and produces K–12 teachers well-versed in science.

Young adolescents who expected to have a career in science were more likely to graduate from college with a science degree, emphasizing the importance of early encouragement.

An undergraduate program involving mentorship, summer and other workshops, and targeting high-achieving high school students improves participation of underrepresented minorities in science.