Middle School Science Research Articles

Utilizing Language-Generating Artificial Intelligence (LGAI) in Educational Planning: A Case Study

The integration of Generative AI (GenAI) tools like ChatGPT in education, while promising, remains underexplored. This study investigates the use of language-generating AI (LGAI) within K-12 instructional planning through a case study of a middle school science teacher using the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework. Findings reveal that effective use of LGAI involves detailed contextual input, iterative dialogue, and selective adoption of AI-generated suggestions. The teacher’s engagement with LGAI not only enhanced lesson planning efficiency but also supported adaptive teaching methods and personalized learning experiences. This integration led to improved confidence and strategic decision-making in instructional planning. The study highlights the potential of LGAI to transform educational practices and underscores the importance of professional development to equip educators with the skills necessary to harness AI technologies effectively. These insights contribute to understanding how GenAI can augment instructional design, offering a framework for integrating technological innovations into pedagogy.

Impact of Metaverse Technology on Academic Achievement and Motivation in Middle School Science

This study explores the effects of Metaverse technology on middle school learners’ academic performance and motivation in science subjects. Utilizing a quasi-experimental design, 33 students in the experimental group were exposed to the Metaverse for one semester, while 32 students in the control group continued with traditional teaching methods at School 148 in Riyadh. Data collection instruments included a validated science achievement test and a motivation scale. The results demonstrated that the nodes were statistically significantly improved in the experimental group, receiving an average post-test score of 73.1, as compared with the control group, receiving an average post-test score of 65.9 (t = 2.3, p < 0.05). The scores in motivation were also slightly higher in the experimental group, with a mean of 26.9, as compared with the control group, with a mean of 17.1 (t = 5.75, p < 0.05). For academic achievement and motivation, the effect sizes were quite high: fixed effect = 1.091; random effect equals 1.086. These results demonstrate the possibilities of Metaverse technology in revolutionizing the way students learn science. This technology could be a valuable tool for instruction in science classes to enhance performances and influence students’ attitudes positively towards enhanced learning environments in schools.

Can Web-Based AI Be Implemented in the Middle School Science Classroom? A Critical Review

Can Web-Based AI Be Implemented in the Middle School Science Classroom? A Critical Review

Understanding Barriers to STEM: Teachers' Insights on African American Underrepresentation

This study focuses on the development of a measurement instrument to identify Middle and High School mathematics and science teachers’ beliefs about the main factors of underrepresentation of African American students in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields. The research method using the stages of instrument development were (1) test design which involved construction of initial item pool by conducting extensive review of literature and coding of participating teachers personal statements (2) determination of validity which involved expert review process to confirm construct and face validity of items, (3) pilot testing which involved collecting data from a second set of participants, (4) determination of reliability which involves conducting a reliability analysis based on data collected from pilot testing and (5) determination of factorial structure which involved Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) to identify underlying factors in participating teachers’ belief structures. First, to obtain trustworthy information, voluntary middle and high school mathematics and science teachers were asked to write personal statements where they explain their main reasons for choosing teaching as a career. Secondly, qualitative data obtained from participating teachers’ personal statements were coded. Coding was applied to identify and to group the phrases or sentences that convey the same or similar reasons. Then results from an extensive literature review on this topic were blended in teachers’ common expressions which were determined because of coding procedure. Then 8 content experts assessed content validity and face validity. Finally, the survey was piloted to African American middle and high school mathematics and science teachers. Fifty-three (53) surveys were completed and received back from teachers. Then, exploratory factor analysis was conducted to identify any underlying factors in the scale. Reliability analyses were also conducted for both the entire survey and for each of the factors. Results of the study suggested four underlying components: (1) Access and Resources, (2) Role Models and Representation, (3) Bias and Discrimination, (4) Curriculum and Pedagogy.

Deciding on “next steps” together: Using progress guides to better differentiate feedback for all in diverse middle school math and science classrooms

While researchers and practitioners have long known that differentiating formative feedback (FF) is a requisite for creating more equitable learning opportunities for students, less is known about how teachers plan for, enact, and reflect on differentiated FF dialogues with students individually, in small groups, or as a whole class—a lens on practice we refer to as “configurations”. This empirical, qualitative case study used a new FF framework to explore how middle-school math and science teachers engaged in FF dialogues with students in different configurations, modalities (written, spoken, nonverbal feedback), and directionalities (teacher-driven, peer-to-peer-driven, self-driven feedback). Findings from analyses of classroom videos, transcripts, and reflections on the use of criterion-referenced assessment tools, including a tool called a “progress guide”, found participants engaged in differentiated FF conversations with students more frequently when using scaffolds/tools. Teachers reported more confidence when using progress guides to launch one-on-one and small-group discussions of “first-draft” responses to tasks. The use of progress guides in student-driven self-assessment protocols also increased teachers’ sense of self-efficacy in providing differentiated feedback during class time. Results showed that equity-oriented feedback exchanges in high-needs schools centred on visible boundary objects such as progress guides helped teachers and students plan “next steps” with purpose and intention.

An innovative approach in middle school science courses: effects of collaborative augmented reality activities on motivation, cognitive load, and satisfaction

ABSTRACT This study examines the effects of collaborative augmented reality activities supported by the 5E teaching model on students’ motivation, cognitive load, and satisfaction levels in a science course. In this context, explanatory design, one of the mixed research methods, was used in this study. The research process was conducted with 18 sixth-grade (5 girls and 13 boys) students studying in a private school for four hours a week for four weeks in a science course. In the quantitative dimension of the study, the effects of collaborative augmented reality activities were examined using one group pretest-posttest design through questionnaires and scales, and student views were evaluated through semi-structured interviews as a result. The quantitative data analysis used the Wilcoxon signed-rank test and descriptive statistics methods. Qualitative data were analyzed through the content analysis method. As a result of the study, it was observed that collaborative augmented reality activities positively affected students’ motivation and satisfaction levels in the science learning process. In addition, collaborative augmented reality activities contributed to balancing the cognitive load. In this regard, it can be asserted that students’ learning processes can be made more effective using collaborative augmented reality activities, especially in teaching complex science subjects.

Investigating middle school science teachers’ stock-flow, causal-loop, and dynamic thinking skills with scenario-based questions

ABSTRACT In recent years, the world has been facing many serious and complex problems, such as climate change, clean energy, and health problems. More comprehensive, holistic, and interdisciplinary approaches are needed to address such complex and global problems. The systems thinking approach in education provides a holistic approach that focuses on the interactions and relationships among components within complex systems at different levels. This study aims to investigate the systems thinking skills of science teachers using three scenario-based questions related to stock-flow thinking, causal-loop thinking, and dynamic thinking skills. The eight middle school science teachers were the participants of the study. Data were collected through online interviews, the qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the data. The results showed that teachers had varying levels of ability to think in terms of stock flows, to think dynamically, and to think in terms of causal loops in the context of domain-general scenario-based questions. The results of the study suggest that the systems thinking and system dynamics approach inherent in science education can be incorporated into teacher training curricula and workshops to improve teachers’ systems thinking skills.

관찰과 소통이 강조된 과학 탐구 수업에서 과학 영재들의 통합 탐구 능력과 관찰과 소통 관점에서 학생들의 수업 인식

This study investigated the level of problem recognition, hypothesis setting, and variable control exploration ability of middle school science gifted students in hypothesis verification exploration classes emphasizing observation and communication, and students’ perceptions of class from perspective of observation and communication. The class of this study is designed for science gifted students to continue to participate in observation and communication, and through the analysis of the students’ reports submitted after the class, it was confirmed that many science gifted students have low level ability of problem recognition, hypothesis setting, and variable control. However, the scientific gifted students of this study recognized that observation and communication helped to conduct inquiry, and that observation activities helped to understand the characteristics of the study subject and to solve the problem in general. In addition, it was recognized that communication activities helped solve previously unresolved problems because they were able to supplement hypotheses and inquiry methods and broaden their thinking. In addition, students responded that not only the observation and communication activities emphasized in the class of this study, but also hypothesis setting, inquiry design and performance activities had a positive effect on the process of verifying the hypothesis and drawing conclusions.

Relationship between Verbal Interaction and Experimental Design Ability of Middle School Science Gifted in the Group Experimental Design Process

Relationship between Verbal Interaction and Experimental Design Ability of Middle School Science Gifted in the Group Experimental Design Process

Construction of a Science Teacher's Topic-Specific Pedagogical Content Knowledge in the Gifted Class

This study examines a science teacher's pedagogical content knowledge during instruction on the topics work and energy, simple machines, and friction force in a gifted class. The research adopts a single case study approach, employing qualitative methods. The participant is a middle school science teacher, and data collection tools include interviews, observations, card-sorting activities, and lesson plans. The main findings of the study are: (1) gifted students required additional science practice beyond the scope of the traditional curriculum, (2) the participating teacher encountered challenges when designing and implementing enrichment activities, (3) the characteristics of gifted students positively influenced the development of the teacher's pedagogical content knowledge, and (4) the presence of gifted students prompted a shift in the teacher's science teaching orientation from traditional methods to reform-based practices. Teachers need to have additional knowledge bases or Pedagogical Content Knowledge components. Notably, the research underscores the relevance of the knowledge of enrichment curriculum and knowledge of characteristics of gifted students in the training of science teachers, along with the crucial role of STO in the education of gifted students, especially in the context of teaching physics. These findings offer significant implications for the curriculum designed for gifted students, particularly concerning the teaching and learning of physics topics.

Development of an Environment-Based Critical Thinking Skills Test Instrument for Class VII Middle School Science Learning

This research developed an environment-based critical thinking skills test instrument for science learning in class VII middle school to answer the problem of students' low critical thinking skills in Indonesia. The aim of the research is to produce a valid and reliable instrument to measure students' critical thinking skills in an environmental context. The research method uses the ADDIE development model with a pre-experimental design (one group pretest-posttest). Research findings show that the instrument developed has high validity and reliability and is able to significantly improve students' critical thinking skills. The conclusion of this research is that environment-based test instruments are effective in measuring and improving students' critical thinking skills. The implications of this research show the importance of integrating environmental issues in learning modules to improve the quality of science education in Indonesia.

“I Should Only Use One Language”: A Case Study of Spanish-Speaking Emergent Bilingual Students’ Translanguaging Experiences in a Middle School Science Classroom

Despite the linguistic diversity in the United States, English-only norms persist in educational settings, placing culturally and linguistically diverse students at a disadvantage. Translanguaging, as a linguistic application of culturally relevant practice, utilizes students’ first and second languages to enhance understanding and communication. Guided by core questions and thorough qualitative analysis, this case study delves into middle school emergent bilingual students’ engagement and experiences with translanguaging in the science classroom within a monolingual school setting. Findings indicate that translanguaging positively impacts students’ comprehension and engagement in science learning, facilitating access to content and strengthening home–school connections. However, students’ attitudes toward translanguaging are influenced by the lack of institutional support and societal language ideologies, leading to mixed opinions about its effectiveness and preferences. The study emphasizes the importance of listening to students’ voices and advocating professional support to establish multilingual educational environments to maximize the advantages of translanguaging practices.

Teacher Outcomes of an Intensive STEM-Focused Professional Learning Initiative: An Examination of Their Beliefs, Practices, and Perceptions

The purpose of this paper is to describe teacher outcomes from participating in an intensive science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professional learning (PL) initiative for middle school science teachers in the United States. The initiative included intensive summer coursework and ongoing support (e.g., individual coaching, professional learning communities), and focused on enhancing teachers’ STEM instruction and their pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), with the ultimate goal of improving student outcomes. In this mixed method study, we examine change across time in teachers’ beliefs, use of STEM instruction, and PCK. In general, we did not observe statistically significant change in teachers’ beliefs, use of STEM instruction, or PCK from the beginning to the end of Year 1. In follow-up focus groups, ten teachers described their perceptions of student outcomes of STEM instruction and identified tensions related to implementation. We offer implications intended to inform future work in the area of STEM PL.

Teacher curricular sensemaking: Revealing salient moments of a science teacher's (un)certainty in relation to opportunities for students' scientific sensemaking

AbstractThis study explored a middle school science teacher's curricular sensemaking in interaction with their use of an educative storyline curriculum, aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards, that was intentionally designed for more opportunities for students' scientific sensemaking. Using a phenomenological case study methodology, we examined how the focal teacher perceived and resolved (un)certainties in their understanding that emerged in their interaction with the curriculum (i.e., their curricular sensemaking), and how the teachers' curricular sensemaking impacted opportunities for students' scientific sensemaking. Findings served to expand our notions of how teachers engage in curricular sensemaking, when this sensemaking occurs, and what teachers make sense of as they experience a new, reform‐oriented curriculum for the first time. In particular, the focal teacher found two types of (un)certainty to be salient at various time points during his curriculum use: (un)certainty around students' scientific sensemaking through particular science practices and (un)certainty about how to navigate the storyline curriculum using students' ideas to drive learning forward. Cutting across these types of (un)certainty, our findings suggest the need to (1) support teachers in problematizing their own understandings about particular science practices and the extent to which their previous instruction aligns with reform‐oriented conceptualizations of those practices, (2) build teachers' capacity to differentiate between various causes of student discomfort and uncertainty so that students' needs and scientific sensemaking goals can be attended to simultaneously, and (3) provide teachers with opportunities to consider how they might use a variety of participation structures to move learning forward while preserving students' rights and responsibilities for the scientific sensemaking.

Climate change education in U.S. middle schools: changes over five pivotal years.

Climate change education is both important and challenging. Prior research suggests that many secondary school science teachers in the United States were conveying "mixed messages" to students that legitimized scientifically unwarranted explanations of recent global warming. In this paper, we focus on US climate education at the middle school level and assess whether teacher attention to recent global warming, and whether the messages conveyed to students, changed between 2014 and 2019. Pooling data from two nationally representative probability surveys of middle school science teachers, we show significant advances on several key criteria, but the prevalence of mixed messages remained high. Exploratory analysis suggests that improvements were spurred partly by the adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards by many states and by partly by shifts in the personal views of science educators.

Fostering Educator Buy-in of Language and Literacy in the Science Classroom

This paper describes a project to build linguistic awareness among science educators at multiple levels: pre-service K–12 teachers, in-service K–12 teachers, and university faculty in both education and STEM fields. Educational linguists from a language-focused non-profit research organization created modules on teaching culturally and linguistically diverse students for a Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program for middle school science educators at a large urban U.S. university. The module content, which was integrated into three science education methods courses, was designed around three key principles: linguistic understanding, critical language awareness, and pedagogical modeling. A critical component to the project’s success was fostering “buy-in” from the various groups of educators through multiple means, including piloting materials with in-service science teachers, training university faculty on the language and literacy materials, and revising content based on feedback from the MAT program faculty and students. The findings demonstrate that over time, the educators re-examined their roles as teachers of language and literacy and reassessed their thinking related to science instruction, highlighting the efficacy of incorporating language development content into training and professional development for STEM educators at multiple levels.

Science Teachers' Views On Seasons And Climate Unit

The seasons and climate unit, which is a unit requiring an interdisciplinary approach within the scope of the science course, is covered within the scope of the 8th grade middle school science course according to the recent change in the science curriculum. Within the scope of the study, We aimed to aimed to determine the views of science teachers on the seasons and climate unit. In this context, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 volunteer science teachers and the data obtained by descriptive analysis were coded by two different people. While coding, a process in the target-objective-implementation plane was taken into consideration. As a result of the study, it was concluded that the place of the seasons and climate unit in the curriculum was found appropriate by the teachers, the fact that there were teachers who did not receive any training on this subject during their undergraduate education revealed misconceptions in the teaching of the subject, the subject was understandable by the students, the learning level of the students was tried to increase with modeling and experimentation, and the use of educational materials other than the textbook was emphasized. Findings of the study implicate that focusing on in-service training of teachers will be beneficial for teachers to use different teaching methods and techniques in their lessons.

Improving 6th Grade Students’ Creative Problem Solving Skills Through Plugged and Unplugged Computational Thinking Approaches

In the digital age in which we live, one of the primary goals of education is to nurture individuals who are capable of thinking creatively, solving problems, and being innovative and productive. Computational thinking is an analytical process that requires defining problems and at the same time solving these problems by proceeding in creative ways. Based on this possible pattern of relationship between computational thinking and creativity, the aim of this study was to determine how two different versions of the computational thinking approach (plugged and unplugged) affect 6th-grade students' creative problem-solving skills (CPSS). Thus, two different teaching modules were designed on the circulatory system with a focus on plugged and unplugged computational thinking. A quasi-experimental design was used. Experiment group 1 utilized the plugged teaching module, experiment group 2 worked with the unplugged teaching module, and the control group in the Turkish middle school science curriculum's inquiry-based science activities. All three groups participated in 16 h of lessons over a 4-week period. We utilized the Creative Problem Solving Skills Inventory (CPSSI) for data collection. The results demonstrated that both the plugged and unplugged teaching modules were more successful at enhancing the CPSS than the inquiry-based science activities. Furthermore the unplugged teaching module was significantly more successful in developing CPSS compared to inquiry-based science activities. Hence, this empirical study demonstrated that both plugged and unplugged computational thinking approaches can enhance CPSS, but also reveals the greater effectiveness of unplugged approaches in fostering middle school students' CPSS.

Futures Thinking in Middle School Science Textbooks

This research aims to illuminate the characteristics of "Futures Thinking" components within the interdisciplinary units of "Science, Technology, and Humanity" and "Nature and Humanity" and "Sustainable development" within Japanese middle school science textbooks. Grounded in pre-existing literatures, this research meticulously organizes the essential competencies of future-oriented thinking into three distinct components: "Envisioning the Future," "Predicting the Future," and "Planning for the Future." Each component is further broken down into more precise indicators. For "Envisioning the Future," indicators include perspectives on "Multiple Futures," the "Science of Future," and "Hope and Fears." For "Predicting the Future," we delve into the "Scenario" technique, alongside "Forecasting" and "Backcasting" strategies. "Planning for the Future" assesses the "Precautionary" approach, "Evaluating Action," and understanding "Risk and Changes." The research involved a cross-sectional analysis of content types (such as texts, diagrams) and contexts (individual, regional, national, and global), determining the presence or absence of these indicators. The findings reveal: (1) a more frequent articulation of these competencies within the "Science, Technology, and Humans" unit, (2) a scant representation of "Multiple Futures" and "Scenario" methods among the nine indicators, (3) a prevalence of explanatory text in presenting these concepts, and (4) a consistent inclination towards a global context in the textbooks' narratives. These insights imply an extant gap within the current pedagogical tools, underscoring the importance of an expanded, multifaceted approach to teaching these competencies. The implications for future curriculum development and instructional strategies in middle school science education are profound, necessitating a more integrated approach that resonates with the uncertainties and possibilities of the future.

Who teaches place-based education: identifying relationships between environmental value orientation and pedagogical values

Place-based education (PBE) offers teachers a unique opportunity to increase engagement and academic outcomes while strengthening students’ connections to their environment and inspiring future conservation. In most instances, classroom teachers must independently choose to implement PBE, such as when discussing topics surrounding wildlife and the environment. Environmental values orientations of teachers may explain teachers’ implementation of PBE. Through thematic analysis of phenomenological interviews with 11 middle and high school science teachers in Colorado we identified their environmental value orientations. We found that teachers with predominantly mutualist environmental value orientations were associated with high levels of implementation. Our findings can inform professional development of teachers learning about the relationship between PBE and pro-environmental value ­orientations and behaviors among future generations.