5 Editorial

6 Letters

9 Science notes
9 Making babies Katrina Fox
12 Calendar project for teaching chemistry Gerard Stout
14 Demonstrating convection currents: an alternative effective demonstration Lee Lawrance
16 Colour and competition: livening up peer-assessment Eileen Aspray
18 Notes on a demonstration of projectile motion Iain MacInnes
20 Bond energies and the interhalogens Jack Hoppé
22 Helpdesk
22 Writing workshop
23 Focus on laboratories

26 Special editorial: Ideas and evidence

29 The role of evidence in the new KS4 National Curriculum for England and the AQA specifications
Ros Roberts and Richard Gott
Evidence has a central role in all the new 2006 GCSEs in England.What do we
need to teach and how might it be assessed?

41 From 'ideas and evidence' to 'scientific enquiry' - the science that schools forgot Rob Tweats
Areview of work being undertaken at Keele University with its ITT partnership science mentors and trainee teachers

45 Promoting ideas, evidence and argument in initial science teacher training Sibel Erduran
The article describes a project supported by the Key Stage 3 Strategy and the Gatsby Foundation that produced resources for supporting the teaching of ideas, evidence and argument in initial teacher training

51 Exploring pupils' understanding of key 'nature of science' terms through research as part of initial teacher education Keith S. Taber
Post-graduate students, preparing to be teachers, undertook research indicating that top-set pupils often have vague and imprecise meanings for key terms used to discuss science in class

63 Learning to teach about 'ideas and evidence' in science: experiences of teachers-in-training
Keith S. Taber, Veit Martin Cooke, Tom de Trafford, Tamsin J. Lowe, Susan Millins and Teresa Quail
Five case studies on how trainee teachers approached teaching about 'ideas and evidence' at key stage 3

75 Learning to teach 'ideas and evidence' in science: a study of school mentors and trainee teachers
Shirley Simon and Jane Maloney
Mentors and trainee teachers use resources and strategies from the Nuffield IDEAS pack in the classroom with some success

83 A 'community of practice' to learn to teach about 'ideas and evidence' in science
Martin Braund, Bob Campbell, Holly Cook, Joanne Ladds and Anne Walkington
A community of practice involving trainee teachers, mentors and science educators devised and evaluated novel lessons on ideas and evidence in science.

91 Working with multiple models
Nick Selley
To help students appreciate the role of controversy in science, perhaps we should start in the laboratory.

97 Lessons from the ASCEND project: able pupils' responses to an enrichment programme exploring the nature of science Keith S. Taber and Fran Riga
The project used the nature of science as an organising theme for developing materials and activities to challenge and interest able pupils. Could such approaches be adopted in mainstream science classes?

107 Using scientists to inspire pupils through 'ideas and evidence' David Faux and Averil MacDonald
Case studies of scientists and engineers are used as resource material to support the delivery of the 'ideas and evidence' element of GCSE science and to demonstrate to pupils what it is really like to work in science

113 Using self-questioning to promote pupils' process skills thinking Christine Chin
Pupils can be empowered to direct their own thinking if they know how to ask themselves appropriate questions. This article discusses how self-questioning can be used to enhance process skills thinking.

124 Book reviews
134 ICT reviews
138 Science websearch
140 Index to Volume 87