The recent COVID-19 pandemic has led to widespread lock-down strategies that force universities to perform all educational activities remotely. In this context, laboratory lessons pose a significant challenge. Here, I present an on-line tool that simulates the kinetics of chemical reactions. Enzymatic mechanisms can be easily modeled and followed…

A new app, freely available for Windows computers, has been developed to simulate tuning of an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer, on the basis of optimization data collected using a sector-field instrument. The app allows students to adjust parameters, including the torch position, gas flows, radio-frequency power, and guard-electrode…

Simulation studies are fundamental to psychometric discourse and play a crucial role in operational and academic research. Yet, resources for psychometricians interested in conducting simulations are scarce. This Instructional Topics in Educational Measurement Series (ITEMS) module is meant to address this deficiency by providing a comprehensive…

Interactive experiences are rapidly becoming popular via the surge of "escape rooms"; part game and part theatre, the "escape" experience is exploding globally, having gone from zero offered at the outset of 2010 to at least 2800 different experiences available worldwide today. CrashEd is an interactive learning experience that…

The "NMC Technology Outlook for Cooperative Extension 2016-2021: A Horizon Project Sector Report" reflects a collaborative research effort between the New Media Consortium (NMC), the eXtension Foundation, and the Innovation Task Force of the Extension Committee on Organization and Policy (ECOP), the representative governing body of…

Studies have shown that standard lectures and instructional laboratory experiments are not effective at teaching interference and diffraction. In response, the author created an interactive computer program that simulates interference and diffraction effects using the finite difference time domain method. The software allows students to easily…

In this paper, we propose a set of activities based on the use of a celestial simulator to gain insights into the retrograde motion of Mars as seen from the Earth. These activities provide a useful link between the heliocentric concepts taught in schools and those tackled in typical introductory physics courses based on classical mechanics for…

In teaching software engineering, it is often interesting to introduce real life scenarios for students to experience and to learn how to collect information from respective clients. The ideal arrangement is to have some real clients willing to spend time to provide their ideas of a target system through interviews. However, this arrangement…

The "Titanic" caught the attention and imagination of the public when, in 1985, the sunken ship was discovered 370 miles off the coast of Newfoundland (PBS, 2012). Since that time, scientists have conducted numerous expeditions using high-resolution SONAR working in tandem with remote-operated vehicles (ROV) to collect information used…

Moving from a traditional desktop computing environment to a virtualized solution is a daunting task. In this article, the author presents case histories of three districts that have made the conversion to virtual computing to learn about their experiences: What prompted them to make the move, and what were their objectives? Which obstacles prove…

This article describes a virtual reality role-playing game that was developed as a survey tool to collect travel behavior data and explore and monitor travel behavior adaptation. The Advanced Energy and Material Systems Laboratory has designed, developed a prototype, and tested such a game platform survey tool, called Travel Activity Constraint…

Discusses several ways in which computers are being used in sociology and how they continue to change this discipline. Areas considered include data collection, data analysis, simulations of social processes based on mathematical models, and problem areas (including standardization concerns, training, and the financing of computing facilities).…

Handheld devices are being used increasingly in schools and higher education. Many researchers assume that the use of these devices will exert considerable impact on educational practices. However, to date, it appears that such use has not been sustainable and transferable. The impact of educational uses of handheld devices does not yet seem…

Described is a computer simulation that was used to help general education students enrolled in a large introductory geology course. The purpose of the simulation is to learn to interpret incomplete data. Students design a plan to collect bathymetric data for an area of the ocean. Procedures used by the students and instructor are included.…

Described is a unit, SAMPLING, which focuses on developing student understanding of probability and data collection for junior high school students. Activities in SAMPLING incorporate physical materials, simple computer simulations, surveys of subjective data, computer simulations of complex situations, and a culminating activity requiring the…