ABSTRACT: Our editorial office reports the following data to present a clear analysis regarding the publication process of the Interdisciplinary Journal of Environmental and Science Education (IJESE) and to inform readers and researchers. The following data are from January 1, 2020–December 31, 2020. We present an overview of the new publisher, number of manuscripts, acceptance rate, rejection rates, distribution of accepted manuscripts, new editorial board members, and other information.

ABSTRACT: Socioscientific issues (SSI) education provides a framework for students to learn about controversial scientific topics such as climate change, vaccines, and genetic engineering, but rarely measures specific personal factors in student decision-making. SSI educators might benefit from building on behavior theories such as the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and Value-Belief-Norm Theory of Environmentalism (VBN) in examining how students make decisions about different types of environmental issues. Undergraduate students (n=132) were surveyed to investigate for which types of behavior TPB, VBN, or both theories are most effective, and to explore whether climate change knowledge was a significant predictor of behavior. Behaviors were divided into indirect behaviors with recycling as a direct behavior comparison. The combined theories of behavior best predicted behavioral intentions in regression models over either theory individually. Recycling, a direct environmental behavior, was predicted by different determinants than three indirect environmental behaviors. Climate change knowledge was not a significant predictor in any of the models. These results support the use of different behavior models for different behaviors and exploration of subjective and personal norms around environmental behavior in the SSI classroom.

ABSTRACT: In order to encourage female students to pursue science as a career, an overnight science camp known as the Women in Science Experience (WISE) was developed and implemented at Mount St. Joseph University. The camp was developed for girls who were 14-17 years of age as a residential experience to simulate life on a university campus. This manuscript describes the implementation of the camp, including development of content and organization of the camp schedule.  The camp was evaluated by student participants using a survey that contained Likert-style and open response questions, with students reporting overall satisfaction with the camp. The manuscript discusses the student responses to the survey and describes the lessons learned from the entire process of developing and running WISE.

ABSTRACT: This paper studies four key aspects of the instrument “Views of Nature of Science” (VNOS); a) its general characteristics, b) the particular characteristics of the forms VNOS-A, VNOS-B, VNOS-C, VNOS-D; VNOS-D+ and VNOS-E, c) the modifications of its open-ended questions, and finally, d) the scope and limitations of the VNOS forms from the new conceptualizations of the Nature of Science (NOS) construct. The methodology is based on documentary research. The criteria of validity and reliability of Scott (1990) are followed. The open-ended questions of VNOS are analysed from four identified inductive categories: extension, reduction, substitution and fragmentation. The main contributions of the article are: 1. Delve into the characterization of VNOS, and its forms, allowing future NOS researchers to interpret the data obtained from the VNOS forms. Thus, each VNOS form identifies open-ended questions focused on various aspects of NOS (direct questions) and open questions focused on a specific context. The VNOS-C form presents more open-ended questions in a specific context and may be of greater interest for research in some populations. Explicit and implicit questions are also identified. The VNOS-D + form has more open-ended questions. Researchers are probably able to find units of analysis to characterize NOS views more easily in the VNOS-D+ form. 2. Relate the open-ended questions and NOS aspects characterize in each VNOS form. 3. Group open-ended questions by characterized NOS aspects, which is of interest for research focused on a particular NOS aspect. 4. Finally, the possibility of characterizing views on “scientific methods” is highlighted, especially when VNOS is used in conjunction with monitoring interviews, as well as with the “Views About Scientific Inquiry” (VASI) instrument. Similarly, it relates to the potential of VNOS forms to characterize some aspects coming from other NOS conceptualizations, especially from “features of science” (FOS) raised by Mathews (2012). All of the above, contributes conceptually and methodologically, to the identification of NOS views of primary and secondary students and their teachers. This is necessary to carry out diagnoses of NOS views in different communities, to propose evaluations of the impact of different teaching strategies and to relate NOS with other constructs, which together allow for the development of skills for informed socioscientific decision-making in the population in general.

ABSTRACT: Supplemental Instruction (SI) has been a successful implementation into Colleges and Universities across the globe. SI has been found to reduce attrition and improve learning and success rate among participating students. At the City College of New York, we recently implemented SI into Organic Chemistry I courses to further support struggling students with the content and concept learning of Organic Chemistry, which is considered a difficult course with a high attrition rate. Our motivation for this research was to examine the impact of SI integration in a large lecture format Organic Chemistry course while assisting students learn and succeed in this challenging course. The objective of this research is to examine whether supplemental instruction (SI) impacts participants’ learning achievement, attitudes, and learning competencies. The experimental design was based on a quasi-experimental approach which included a questionnaire of open-ended and Likert-scaled questions that was distributed to SI participants, and SI participants’ grades were compared to the grades of non-SI participants. Data suggest that integrating Supplemental Instruction (SI) into Organic Chemistry courses positively impacts students’ attitudes towards the content and experience in the course, helps them better understand concepts and materials, improves students’ problem-solving skills, and is effective in improving students’ achievement, success, and the learning. SI participants had an overall passing average of 81%, compared to about 50% for non-SI participants. SI participation provided the participants with a unique and individualized learning experience that resulted in an enhanced conceptual understanding.

ABSTRACT: The aim of this study is to reveal how children portray their relationships with a nearby riverscape. We studied the differences in environmental perception by analyzing drawings at two scales: urban vs. suburban and present state vs. future visions. A total of 118 children, aged nine to 13, were asked to draw pictures of their neighboring river landscape. The elements represented were classified in four categories: biotic, abiotic, recreation and infrastructure and were analyzed using a generalized linear model. The results showed that the children perceived the current landscape as a contaminated space. The elements like garbage and dead animals were very relevant. The comparison between urban and suburban sectors showed significant differences in the biotic and infrastructure categories, and such differences were even greater between the present images and future visions. The participants had a strong attachment to nature and highly valued the riverscape as a place for recreation. Research suggests a high level of interest in environmental concern.

ABSTRACT: Greece is located at the southeastern edge of the European Union, surrounded by coastline that reaches 18 thousand kilometers. This study aims to analyze educational material, the textbooks used in secondary education - Gymnasium - to determine whether students and future citizens of the country are taught in depth issues related to Marine Biology. Analyzing content, applying biophilic typology and recording observations, reveals several positive points and weaknesses that require improvements. The analysis recognizes the need for a more organized approach to Marine Biology issues, to be more actively integrated into teaching.