Previous generations of physics students learned how common machines work, as evidenced by their textbook illustrations. Such understanding of machines that daily life depends on seems to be evaporating. In response, for two decades I have conducted an introductory physics "engine cadaver lab." It offers opportunities for hands-on…

We here propose a simple and fast hands-on activity requiring limited equipment, to introduce students of various levels (bachelor's or high school) and backgrounds (from science to arts) to the chemistry of color. The different colors of stained glass are replicated through the deposition, on ordinary glass slides, of silica coatings colored by…

Students in a typical instrumental analysis course may learn more than 30 analytical techniques. There are more than 150 components associated with the instrumentation that they learn. To help students organize this large amount of information, we classified these components into four categories: sources, samples, discriminators, and detectors. In…

Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) is a versatile and widely used technique to detect and quantify small molecules in various clinical and analytical applications. It is also an effective tool for demonstrating the specificity between antibody and antigen to students across diverse disciplines. However, undergraduate laboratories often face…

Facile visualization of biomolecules is an essential component of the undergraduate biochemistry curriculum. In the past, a number of tools have been used to display biomolecules. More recently, the advent of greater accessibility to virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) programs has created a new mechanism to visualize biomolecules.…

Social connections are crucial for today's middle and high school students. We address this social need through a 3-H Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Cycle. Through the Three Sisters Garden activity presented here, we teach secondary school students about biodiversity and sustainability as we integrate the arts into STEM (STEAM). Students…

Primary sources are original artifacts from the past that can used to understand an event or time period. They are customarily only thought of in the realm of historical thinking. That is unfortunate because they can also be considered in terms of scientific, economic, cultural, and mathematical thinking. While primary sources are increasingly…

The use of fossils as a tool in the classroom provide the medium in which students enthusiastically and directly engage in scientific exploration and thinking, enhancing their interest in future science curricula, and provide an avenue to develop scientific literacy. The National Research Council stated that students should have authentic…

During the second industrial revolution (1870-1914), scientists moved away from trial-anderror methods to more systematically apply the principles of chemistry, physics, and biology (Mokyr 1998). The authors chose this period as the foundation of a project-based learning (PBL) unit integrated with the ninth-grade U.S. history curriculum (Thomas…

In recent years, the integration of science and mathematics has become popular among educators because of its potential benefits for student learning. The purpose of this study is to introduce a two-day interdisciplinary lesson that brings science and mathematics concepts together, actively engaging students in working with percentages of the…

In this design case, we describe our work to design and develop a socio-scientific issue (SSI) based unit of instruction for use in high school biology. Our team includes university based science educators, an experienced classroom teacher, and a microbiologist. The unit focuses on antibiotic resistant bacteria as a context for student exploration…

This investigation-based lesson is geared toward third through fifth grade students. The lesson presented in this article was the first of three lessons designed and taught by us for our first preservice teaching course. UTeach is a teacher preparation program for undergraduate STEM majors, which originated at the University of Austin, Texas. The…

Learning takes place mostly through communication. This is why teachers employ different types of interaction in the classroom in order to provide a varied environment for the students. Apart from the commonly used Student-Teacher-Talk or Teacher-Student-Talk, presentations or lectures may offer advantages with regard to the promotion of…

This document reports on the first year of a three year course of study for high school students in New York state known as the Science Research Program (SRP). SRP affords students the opportunity to conduct scientific research in conjunction with research scientists and professionals in the field. The program implementation incorporates the…