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Achieving the targets of science education mostly depends on the true understanding of the fundamentals where science and the scientific efforts are embedded through the realist ontology and epistemology that science is based on. Models have a special place in science education revealing to understand the nature and status of scientific knowledge. By considering this function of models, this research puts forward the views of the primary students on scientific models. The participants of this qualitative survey research are twenty-eight 7th graders of a primary school in Izmir, Turkey. The participants are given a questionnaire and a worksheet, which were developed by the researchers, addressing both epistemological and ontological character of models. The results showed that students have generally moderate understanding of models through perceptual and ordinary reality.

This study aims to reveal science teachers' performances in designing TPACK-based argumentation practices for teaching geology. This study used a holistic single case study design where thirty-two science teachers participated in a professional development program. All materials such as videos, etc. used by the teachers and the Pedagogical Reasoning Assessment Form (PRAF) were used as data collection tools. Descriptive analysis was conducted through the scoring rubric for lesson plans and content analysis for PRAF. Findings indicated that teachers successfully used TPACK indicators in their lessons. Findings also revealed that although teachers thought that formative assessment could be improved by learning from professional development programs, they did not use technology for assessment in their lesson plans. Related to the argumentation process, teachers tended to construct their arguments with one rebuttal, and they could not use warrants. Moreover, although teachers had high scores in the quality of claim, rebuttal, and backing respectively, they had some problems in presenting data and warrant for the claim. PRAF findings indicated that the TPACK-based Argumentation Practices Professional Development Program (TPACK-bAP PDP) enriched their lesson plans in some aspects.

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) project refers to experiments conducted to address problems, make improvements, or discover new things in those fields that can be tested using the scientific method. This paper describes a long-term STEM project in which pre-service science teachers (PSSTs) have a chance to discover new application fields of microalgae and use them for bio-efficacy. One of the PSSTs' projects is described in detail. This STEM project-based activity lasted for 8 weeks. In the results, a product developed by PSSTs is a cling film which has an antioxidant effect owing to microalgae and sodium alginate. Besides, this environmentally friendly product is equivalent to plastic foils used nowadays. The production processes of this cling film will be presented in detail. According to these processes, some implications for improving the product and facilitating the process will be presented at the end of the paper.

This study aims to explain the extent to which prospective physics teachers' views and practices are consistent with the constructivist framework. A case study design was employed as the research approach. The study was conducted with 11 prospective physics teachers attending a state university in Turkey. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews, observation notes and lesson plans. The interview guide consisted of questions which allowed the interviewer to probe participants' views of constructivism based on 5E learning model. Such questions as "how do you plan your teaching?" (introducing new topics, continuing the lecture, types of questions to ask, evaluating students' understanding etc.) were included in the interview. Following the analysis of the interview data, participants' profiles were classified into three categories: traditional, transition and constructivist under the dimensions "beginning of a lesson," "learning process," "learning environment" and "assessment." Observations were carried out using an observation checklist consisting of 24 items based on 5E learning model. Another checklist developed by the researchers was used to evaluate participants' teaching qualifications. Interview results showed that seven participants had transitional, three had constructivist and one had traditional views. However, none of the participants were observed to exhibit constructivist teaching styles. Moreover, observation and interview results were consistent only for six participants, indicating that almost half of the participants had difficulty putting their views into practice.

The purpose of this paper is to present an activity based on the integration of modeling and STEM to answer a real-life question related to volcanism which is a continuously unobservable but important phenomenon for many countries. For this purpose, firstly an activity was developed about volcanic eruptions to model the characteristics of volcanic eruptions' explosiveness. Afterwards, the participants designed a predictor of a possible eruption by using an engineering design process. The study was conducted in a public university in Turkey with twenty-four 3rd grade Pre-Service Science Teachers (PSSTs) in three weeks. In the first week, the real-life scenario was given to the PSSTs and they modeled the characteristics of volcanic eruptions' explosiveness such as viscosity, pressure, and rate of degassing. Followingly, they planned their predictors of volcanic eruptions based on what they learned in the modeling stage and started to design in the second week. In the third week, they completed their prototypes and shared their prototype development experiences with classmates. Many prototypes were presented as examples in which they used detecting the gas released from a volcano, measuring changes in the shape of the volcano, as well as monitoring earthquakes that may signal a possible eruption.

It is important to structure children's knowledge and arouse their interest in subjects like astronomy and space. Although we now talk of travelling to the moon, space tourism etc., knowledge about astronomy and space is limited and perceptions of these subjects do not reflect scientific reality. Primary level students often have misconceptions about nature and the universe. This study aims at raising the participating students' awareness of the concepts and themes of astronomy and space and identifying whether they are able to use the knowledge they acquire in this process in their daily lives. The participants are applied a pretest and a post-test in the form of comprehension questions about astronomy and space. Parallel to that, a semi-structured interview and Scientific Knowledge Scale was applied before and after the science camp. Moreover, at the end of the camp the students were asked to write compositions and to draw pictures for observing their skills about expressing astronomy in both written and visual data. The results are also supported by quantitative data. The obtained qualitative and quantitative data was analyzed. By the end of the activity based program, the participant students effortlessly learned about astronomy and space, and their interest on the topic increased. If enhancing students' concepts about astronomy with enjoyable instruction without exam worries is considered an important issue for teachers and other educators, science camps can be suggested to enhance other relevant and irrelevant science concepts as well.