Att undervisa i de naturorienterande ämnena (NO) i de tidiga skolåren är ett utmanande, spännande och roligt uppdrag. Dessa ämnen spänner dock över stora innehållsområden och därför kan det vara svårt att få en överblick och välja ett innehåll som är lämpligt för åldersgruppen.

Den här boken hjälper lärare att få grepp om det viktigaste innehållet i de naturvetenskapliga ämnena. Författarna beskriver naturvetenskaperna ur ett helhetsperspektiv och ger en övergripande struktur, som kompletteras med relevanta begrepp. Naturvetenskapens bärande idéer förklaras mer i detalj och utifrån en rad konkreta vardagliga exempel. Innehållet diskuteras i förhållande till Läroplan för grundskolan, förskoleklassen och fritidshemmet (Lgr 11).

Boken kan användas både som kurslitteratur för blivande lärare och som ämnesfördjupning för verksamma lärare.

Ska man vaccinera sig mot influensa, även om det finns risk för biverkningar? Är strålningen från mobiltelefoner farlig eller inte? Och vad stoppar vi i oss? Kan vi lita på att maten vi köper är bra?

Även om de flesta grundskoleelever inte kommer att välja en naturvetenskaplig yrkesbana kommer de att möta den här typen av frågor, som kallas för samhällsfrågor med naturvetenskapligt innehåll (SNI). Denna bok erbjuder både en teoretisk ram och konkreta exempel på hur man kan jobba med SNI i skolan.

Elever tycker ofta att frågorna är intressanta, men de fastnar lätt i att diskutera personliga värderingar och det finns en risk att det naturvetenskapliga innehållet och samhällskontexten går förlorad. Läraren behöver därför stödja eleverna i arbetet med att formulera frågor, arbeta källkritiskt, argumentera, planera undersökningar samt värdera resultat och information. Syftet med arbetsmetoderna är att stärka elevernas möjligheter att använda sig av dessa kunskaper i vardagslivet

Författarna har under tre år bedrivit ett forskningsprojekt om SNI i grundskolan. Erfarenheter och resultat från detta projekt ligger till grund för boken.

This paper aim at investigating what astronomy students and experts discern from the multitude of different disciplinary affordances available in Hertzsprung-Russell (HR) diagrams. HR-diagrams are central to all of astronomy and astrophysics and used extensively in teaching. However, knowledge about what students and experts discern from these disciplinary representations are not well known at present. HR-diagrams include many disciplinary affordances that may be hidden to the novice student, hence we aim at investigating and describing what astronomy students at different university levels (introductory, undergraduate, graduate), and astronomy educators/professors, discern from such representation – referred to as disciplinary discernment (Eriksson, Linder, Airey, & Redfors, 2014). Data from a web based questionnaire were analysed using the Anatomy of Disciplinary Discernment (ADD) framework by Eriksson et al. (2014). Preliminary results show (1) the developmental nature of disciplinary discernment from the HR-diagram by the participants and (2) the large discrepancy between disciplinary discernment by the astronomy educators and their students. We describe and discuss the qualitative nature of these differences and how this can have implications for teaching and learning astronomy.

This paper aim at investigating what astronomy students and experts discern from the multitude of different disciplinary affordances available in Hertzsprung-Russell (HR) diagrams. HR-diagrams are central to all of astronomy and astrophysics and used extensively in teaching. However, knowledge about what students and experts discern from these disciplinary representations are not well known at present. HR-diagrams include many disciplinary affordances that may be hidden to the novice student, hence we aim at investigating and describing what astronomy students at different university levels (introductory, undergraduate, graduate), and astronomy educators/professors, discern from such representation – referred to as disciplinary discernment. Data from a web based questionnaire were analysed using the Anatomy of Disciplinary Discernment (ADD) framework by Eriksson et al.(2014). Preliminary results show (1) the developmental nature of disciplinary discernment from the HR-diagram by the participants and (2) the large discrepancy between disciplinary discernment by the astronomy educators and their students. We describe and discuss the qualitative nature of these differences and implications for teaching and learning astronomy.

In a European project—CoReflect—researchersin seven countries are developing, implementing andevaluating teaching sequences using a web-based platform(STOCHASMOS). The interactive web-based inquirymaterials support collaborative and reflective work. Thelearning environments will be iteratively tested and refined,during different phases of the project. All learning environmentsare focusing ‘‘socio-scientific issues’’. In thisarticle we report from the pilot implementation of theSwedish learning environment which has an Astrobiologycontext. The socio-scientific driving questions are ‘‘Shouldwe look for, and try to contact, extraterrestrial life?’’, and‘‘Should we transform Mars into a planet where humanscan live in the future?’’ The students were in their last yearof compulsory school (16 years old), and worked togetherin triads. We report from the groups’ decisions and thesupport used for their claims. On a group level a majorityof the student groups in their final statements expressreluctance towards both the search of extraterrestrial lifeand the terraforming of Mars. The support used by thestudents are reported and discussed. We also look moreclosely into the argumentation of one of the student groups.The results presented in this article, differ from earlierstudies on students’ argumentation and decision making onsocio-scientific issues (Aikenhead in Science education foreveryday life. Evidence-based practice. Teachers CollegePress, New York, (2006) for an overview), in that theysuggest that students do use science related arguments — both from ‘‘core’’ and ‘‘frontier’’ science — in their argumentationand decision making.

According to many documents there is a strong need to renew science education. One way could be to work with socio scientific issues (SSI). This paper reports about both students and teachers' experiences and learning when working with socioscientific issues in science education at senior level (age 13-16). The approach is multidimensional as factors that influence cognition as well as motivation and the forming of attitudes are complex. Results suggest SSI work forms are more important than personal factors for explaining outcomes. Relevant issues, autonomy and functioning group work seem to be important aspects of successful SSI work together with structure provided by the teacher, and information that challenges previous knowledge. In general, SSI seems to be most efficient for students, who believe they learn from presenting and discussing their knowledge, focus on ‘the large picture’, acknowledges own responsibility for learning, finds school science personally relevant and are self-efficacious. It seems that the outcomes from SSI work are much in the hands of the teacher. Thus, working with SSI could be considered as an appropriate activity for all students. However, educators should continue to look for ways to promote development of students’ attitudes and epistemological beliefs.

This paper presents results from one part of a study about lower secondary students‟ and teachers‟ experiences and learning when working with a socio-scientific issue in science education. The case: Are cell phones hazardous? started from two articles from the same newspaper – one saying that there are no risks associated with the use of cell phones and another saying that the risk for developing a brain tumour is considerable. Data was colleced using observations, tape and video recording, interviews and questionnaires. Both boys and girls found this case very interesting and related to a current issue. Almost all students claim that the introduction to the case aroused their interest and that they learnt new facts during the work. The more interesting the students found the case, the more they claimed they have learnt. We also have results indicating the importance of the teachers‟ way of introducing and structuring the work. Further analysis will give us more information about what is crucial and how we can improve this way of working.

According to many documents, there is a strong need to renew science education. One way could be to work with SSI (socio-scientific issues). This paper reports on both students' and teachers' experiences and learning when working with socio-scientific issues in science education in secondary school (aged from 13 to 16). The approach is multidimensional, as factors that influence cognition as well as motivation and the forming of attitudes are complex. Results suggest that SSI work forms are more important than personal factors for explaining outcomes. Relevant issues, autonomy and functioning group work seem to be important aspects of successful SSI work together with structure provided by the teacher, and information that challenges previous knowledge. In general, SSI seems to be most efficient for students, who believe that they learn from presenting and discussing their knowledge, focus on "the large picture", acknowledge own responsibility for learning, find school science personally relevant and are self-efficacious. It seems that the outcomes from SSI work are much in the hands of the teacher. This paper is a short summary of the first year and quantitative part of the project. Further results from the project will later be found in our homepage (http://www.sisc.se).

In a European project – CoReflect – researchers in seven countries are developing, implementing and evaluating teaching sequences using a web-based platform (STOCHASMOS). The interactive web-based inquiry materials support collaborative and reflective work. The project methodology is based on the idea of design-based research, which seeks to bridge the often disconnected worlds of academia and educational practices. Hence, the teachers are engaged throughout the project. The learning environments will be iteratively tested and refined, first as pilot projects, then during local implementations, and finally during implementations and synthesis work at the European level. All learning environments are focusing “socio-scientific” issues.  In this article we report from the pilot of the Swedish learning environment with an Astrobiology context. The socio-scientific driving questions were “Should we look for, and try to contact, extraterrestrial life?”, and “Should we transform Mars into a planet where humans can live in the future?” The students are in their last year of compulsory school (16 years old), and worked together in triads. We report from the groups’ decisions and arguments used. A majority of the groups express reluctance towards both the search of extraterrestrial life and the terraforming of Mars.

We report from the European project CoReflect (www.coreflect.org) where groups in Cyprus, England, Germany, Greece, Israel, Sweden and the Netherlands are developing, implementing and evaluating teaching sequences using the internet platform Stochasmos (Kyza & Constantinou, 2007). Within this design-based project (Barab & Squire, 2004) teach­ers and researchers work together on the design of digi­tal learning environ­ments (LE:s). The approach seeks to bridge the worlds of academia and the world of educational practice. All LE:s build on dif­ferent socio-scientific issues (Sadler, 2004), and Stochasmos are used to help teachers scaf­fold students in collaborative learning.

The local working groups of researchers and teachers design one LE each. The design goes through different phases: implementation, review and refinement. The aim of this article is to describe these phases, for the Swedish LE. The Swedish group chose socio-scientific issues in the content area of Astrobiology. Astrobiology captures questions that have been found to be of interest to students (Sjøberg & Schreiner, 2006). The socio-scientific driving questions are:

Should we look for, and try to contact, extraterrestrial life?

Should we transform Mars into a planet where humans can live in the future?

Students are expected to: a) demonstrate a basic understanding of essential concepts of astrobiology, b) discuss the nature of science, c) link hands-on lab-work to astrobiology research, d) provide evidence-based answers to the driving questions, using scientific, social, economical and ethical perspectives.

Based on the evaluation of the pilot enactment several changes were made in Stochasmos and to the teachers’ guide. Even though Stochasmos gives the work structure, through tabs and templates the need for a scaffolding teacher was obvious. The teacher needs to be familiar and knowledgeable about the content in order to be able to produce challenging questions. A stricter planning for the teacher, with explicit instruction about student activities was introduced to promote science oriented discussions. The students liked working with the computer – it is a familiar environment. The teacher experienced an increase in student anticipation and focus. The analysis of the second enactment is ongoing, and will be presented at the conference.

Barab, S., & Squire, K. (2004). Design-based research: Putting a stake in the ground. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 13(1), 1-14.

Kyza, E. A. & Constantinou, C. P. (2007). Stochasmos: A web-based platform for reflective, in-quiry-based teaching and learning. Cyprus: Learning in Science Group.

Redfors, A., Hansson, L. & Rosberg, M. (2009). Socio-Scientific Collaborative Inquiry in astro-biology – The Design and Implementation of a digital learning environment. Esera 2009.

Sadler, T. D. (2004). Informal reasoning regarding socioscientific issues: a critical review of re-search. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 41(5), 513-536.

Sjøberg, S., & Schreiner, C. (2006). How do learners in different cultures relate to science and technology? Results and perspectives from the project rose (the relevance of science education). Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, 6(2), 1-17.

Groups in Cyprus, Israel, Germany, The Netherlands, Greece, England and Sweden have developed, implemented and evaluated teaching sequences using the web-based platform STOCHASMOS in a EU-project – www.coreflect.org. The interactive web-based inquiry materials support collaborative and reflective work. The sequences have been tested as pilot projects and revised for a second local implementation. They will be culturally adopted for a third enactment in a partner country.

The Swedish learning environment is Astrobiology for secondary students (9th grade, 16 years). Scientific, social, economical and ethical perspectives are taken on the driving question: Should we look for, and try to contact, extraterrestrial life?

Empirical data from the final enactment, including students’ worldviews and their use of scientific arguments, will be discussed at the conference. Preliminary results from the pilot show that students appreciate the teaching, and we see an increase in students’ motivation.

The Fourier-transform spectrum from an iron-neon hollow-cathode lamp has been studied in the region 9000-11 000 Å. The 3d⁶(⁵D)5g subconfiguration of Fe II has been established by means of about 220 newly identified 4f-5g transitions. The 5g configuration is well represented by J K coupling, which is demonstrated by the application of the quadrupolic approximation. A consistent pattern in the FWHM for various types of Fe II transitions has been observed. Calculated oscillator strengths are given for all observed lines and their relative accuracy is estimated from observed intensities. The new data offer unprecedented tools for diagnostics of stellar atmospheres.