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Electronic
Journal of
Science
Education ISSN
1087-3430 Vol. 2 No.1
September 1997
John R. Cannon, Editor
David T. Crowther, Associate Editor
University of Nevada, Reno
"Go Pack"
* For a "printer-friendly", plain white paper version of this contents
page, click here.
- Thank you for
your interest in the Electronic Journal of Science Education the
only
journal of its kind devoted to the timely sharing of science education issues via the
World Wide Web and E-mail. The editors and review board hope you find the enclosed
articles academically and professionally valuable.
It's a new year...and bit of a new look for
the EJSE. This issue begins our second year thanks to
our review board, authors, and Internet readers. We hope this new year
brings more innovative ideas
and articles to the EJSE.
And...we are also proud to report that the
EJSE subscription rates will remain the same in 1997-98
as they did in 1996-97. . . FREE!
Photo courtesy of NASA at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/marsnews/img/
Photo lower left courtesy of NASA at
http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/images/pao/AS11/10075247.jpg
The first issue of the
EJSE began with the words, "It's a new dawn..." 
We
featured another famous
NASA photo, Earthrise. Much has developed in technology
since
1969 with the astronauts of Apollo 11 landing on the moon. Even
though
Viking 1 first orbited Mars in 1975, space technology has continued
to
evolve to the point where young engineers, many of whom were probably
exposed elementary and secondary sciences using Elementary Science
Study (ESS), Science-A Process Approach (S-APA), or Science
Curriculum Improvement Study (SCIS) curriculum materials. Little
did their teachers know that,
perhaps one day, a budding scientist or engineer in their third grade
would become part of the
Mars Pathfinder mission in 1997, allowing those of us who are
still earth bound to enjoy the
spectacular view of the Martian sunset. I wonder if these students
ever did an "egg drop"? I bet so.
I suggest that scholarly electronic publishing has
gone through a similar evolution -- from
largely text-only versions of manuscripts, often delivered via e-mail
or ftp, to World Wide Web
pages, complete with color graphics, animation and audio, ever increasing
in their style and
sophistication.
The EJSE is proud to be at the forefront
of this new technology in offering scholarly science
education publications to its readers. We plan to continue
to bring our readers even more science
education and related information in '97-98. We also are planning
for theme issues this year, so please
stay tuned and on-line for more information.
John R. Cannon, editor
Volume 2 (1997-1998) kicks off the EJSE with three articles, a guest editorial, and our inaugural
section on Resources and Programs in Higher Education. Each piece discusses science education
issues from various facets.
Article one, A Multiple Perspective Analysis of
the Role of Language in
Inquiry Science Learning: To Build a Tower analyzes data
in a new light. One reviewer
commented:
- "...this is a helpful step in understanding how elementary school students
make sense of
science and technology experiences. I especially like the idea of examining the same
evidence from a number of different theoretical perspectives."
Polish Secondary Students And Teachers, reviews and discusses ecological beliefs and concerns
closely held by a large segment of the Polish citizenry. It makes clear the continued importance of
evolving environmental policy, science education, and quality of life for people world-wide.
Article three, Elementary and Secondary Students'
Perceptions Toward Science:
Correlations with Gender, Ethnicity, Ability, Grade, and Science
Achievement brings together
and discusses research involving previously individually investigated
factors, such as gender, and
looks for relationships with the factors gender, ethnicity, ability,
grade, and science achievement. This
collective study investigated both elementary and secondary students.
Welcome back to the EJSE for
another new academic year!
Table of Contents
Guest Editorial...
Science Education A Science?
by Robert E. Yager, University
of Iowa
To go to this article, click here.
Article One
A Multiple Perspective Analysis of the Role of Language
in Inquiry Science Learning: To Build a Tower
by
Michael Kamen, Auburn University
e-mail:
kamenmi@mail.auburn.edu
Wolff-Michael Roth, University of Victoria
Lawrence B. Flick, Oregon State University
Bonnie Shapiro, University of Calgary
Laura Barden, Western Illinois University
Elizabeth Kean, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Stephen Marble, Southwest Educational Development Lab
and
Jay Lemke, City University of New York
Abstract
The role of language in science learning is coming into focus for science
education researchers
from a number of perspectives. With a constructivist paradigm
dominating the field, language is
being explored for its role in facilitating and assessing learning
and in understanding complex
interactions related to science teaching and learning. This paper,
by opening a window onto a
variety of techniques, methods, and approaches to the analysis of one
short discussion between
several elementary students, presents the opportunity to continue and
enhance the dialogue about
ways to research and understand children's discourse during science
activities. The purpose of
this paper is to clarify issues relating to the interaction between
language and science learning
and to relate these issues to different theoretical perspectives.
From this "discourse about
discourse" the authors identify and share avenues for further research,
including methodological
approaches and implications for the classroom teacher. The researchers
examine a two-and-one-
half minute videotape of three boys constructing a tower of plastic
drinking straws as part of a
unit called "Engineering for Children: Structures" which
was presented in a mixed fourth- and
fifth-grade class.
To go to this article, click here.
Article Two
Elementary and Secondary Students' Perceptions Toward Science:
Correlations with Gender, Ethnicity, Ability, Grade,
and Science Achievement
by
M. Faye Neathery
Southwestern Oklahoma State University
Department of Chemistry/Science Education
100 Campus Drive
Weatherford, OK 73096
(405) 774- 7133
e-mail: neathef@swosu.edu
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine student attitudes toward
science and the correlations of the
attitudes with the variables of ability, gender, ethnicity, grade,
and science achievement. To measure the
elementary and secondary students' perceptions toward science, a modified
Osgood Semantic
Differential instrument was used. The attitudes examined were important/unimportant
(S1),
valuable/worthless (S2), understandable/confusing (S3), exciting/boring
(S4), and easy/hard (S5).
An intercorrelational analysis showed significant relationships between
ability and four of the five
attitudes toward science. The students in the high ability group rated
science as valuable,
understandable, and easy; whereas, the students in the low ability
group rated science as important.
The attitude of exciting did not correlate with ability. Gender correlated
with one attitude; males
ranked science as a subject more exciting than females. Ethnicity did
not correlate with any of the
five attitudes. Grade significantly correlated with each attitude toward
science; the grade comparisons
as measured by the Scheffe test indicated that students enrolled in
grades four, five, and six perceived
science more positively than secondary students. With multiple correlation,
science achievement
correlated with attitude toward science.
To go to this article, click here.
Article Three
The Ranking of Global Environmental Issues and Problems
by Polish Secondary Students and Teachers
by
Michael Robinson, Ph.D
University of Nevada
Reno, Nevada, 89557
e-mail: robinson@equinox.unr.edu
Tomasz Trojok, Ph.D.
Electrical Engineer
Walcownie Metali, Dziedzice
ul. Hutnicza 13
Czechowice-Dziedzice 43-502
Poland
and
Jan Norwisz, Ph.D.
Director
Poszanowania Energy Foundation
ul. Bohaterow Getta Warszawskiego 9p.608
Gliwice 44-100
Poland
Abstract
This article presents a study of the priorities given to global environmental
issues/problems by over 700
secondary students and teachers in nine secondary schools in two cities
in Katowice Province in Upper
Silesia, Poland. The 12 global environmental issues/problems used in
the study were originally identified
by Rodger Bybee. The students and teachers ranked air quality and hazardous
substances as the most
important environmental problems and energy shortages and mineral resources
as the least important.
The study also determined where students get most of their information
about environmental problems
and related it to the importance of personal experience. Some background
information about
environmental problems in Poland is also given. The study has important
implications for determining
what changes should be made in secondary science curriculum and instruction
in Polish secondary
schools if students are to develop a greater understanding of the need
for global environmental
sustainability.
To go to this article, click here.
Special Section: Resources and Programs in Higher Education
compiled by David T. Crowther, Associate Editor, EJSETo go to the special section, click here.
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