Frackson Mumba

Representative Nature of Scientific Literacy Themes in a High School Chemistry Course: The Case of Zambia.

The purpose of this study was to find out how the scientific literacy themes are represented in the current Zambian high school chemistry syllabus, textbooks and grade twelve chemistry examination papers in an attempt to find out whether or not the chemistry course has adequate potential to contribute to the preparation of scientifically literate citizens. The results show some disparity among the high school chemistry course materials. The chemistry syllabus had a better representation of the scientific literacy themes than the chemistry textbooks and examination papers. The chemistry textbooks mostly emphasized science as a body of knowledge theme, whereas the examination papers mostly covered the investigative nature of science theme. Both the chemistry syllabus and examination paper 2 placed some emphasis on the interaction of science and technology theme. Despite the disparity in the representation of scientific literacy themes among the high school chemistry course materials, the course has adequate potential to contribute to the preparation of scientifically literate citizens.

Junior High School Pre-service Science Teachers’ Familiarity, Conceptual Understanding and Interest in Electrochemistry

This study in Zambia examined 66 junior high school pre-service science teachers’ familiarity with, conceptual understanding of and levels of interest in learning more about electrochemistry concepts. Data were collected using the Familiarity with Electrochemistry Questionnaire, the Conceptual Understanding of Electrochemistry Test and the Interest in Electrochemistry Questionnaire. Statistical tests were used to analyse data. Pre-service teachers reported high levels of familiarity with the electrochemistry concepts surveyed. They were more familiar with basic than advanced electrochemistry concepts. On average, participants demonstrated moderate conceptual understanding of electrochemistry concepts. Although there was a significant difference between males’ and females’ familiarity with electrochemistry concepts, there was no significant difference between the two gender groups in their understanding of and interest in electrochemistry. There were no significant correlations between participants’ familiarity with, understanding of and interest in electrochemistry. Overall, pre-service science teachers’ self-reported high levels of familiarity with electrochemistry concepts was at variance with their actual conceptual understanding of the concepts. However, pre-service science teachers expressed high levels of interest in learning more about electrochemistry concepts they did not understand. In particular, pre-service teachers were interested in learning more about advanced electrochemistry concepts. The implications for teacher education and chemistry teaching and learning are discussed.

Engineering design skills coverage in K-12 engineering program curriculum materials in the USA

ABSTRACT The current K-12 Science Education framework and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in the United States emphasise the integration of engineering design in science instruction to promote scientific literacy and engineering design skills among students. As such, many engineering education programmes have developed curriculum materials that are being used in K-12 settings. However, little is known about the nature and extent to which engineering design skills outlined in NGSS are addressed in these K-12 engineering education programme curriculum materials. We analysed nine K-12 engineering education programmes for the nature and extent of engineering design skills coverage. Results show that developing possible solutions and actual designing of prototypes were the highly covered engineering design skills; specification of clear goals, criteria, and constraints received medium coverage; defining and identifying an engineering problem; optimising the design solution; and demonstrating how a prototype works, and making iterations to improve designs were lowly covered. These trends were similar across grade levels and across discipline-specific curriculum materials. These results have implications on engineering design-integrated science teaching and learning in K-12 settings.

Understanding Energy Conservation: Intersection Between Biological and Everyday Life Contexts

© 2012 Chabalengula and Mumba., licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Understanding Energy Conservation: Intersection Between Biological and Everyday Life Contexts