This paper describes the integration of geographic information system (GIS) technology in a high school environmental science classroom, specifically examining the impact of GIS technology on student engagement, critical thinking, and interdisciplinary learning for Education for Sustainability (EfS). This environmental science classroom utilized…

This article uses dynamic software in Excel to demonstrate several ways in which graphical and numerical approaches can be introduced both to enhance student understanding of l'Hopital's Rule and to explain why the Rule actually works to give the "right" answers. One of the approaches used is to visualize what is happening by examining…

Co-written by a student and his teacher, this article illustrates how a carefully structured individual education program supported by appropriate software can provide suitable challenges for a gifted Year 3 student. While the focus is on one student's statistical investigation, the story has relevance to the wider primary school environment.

At West Texas A&M University, faculty members in the Criminal Justice and Emergency Management programs teach students how to deal with man-made and natural disasters. These program courses require students to learn about the National Incident Management Systems (NIMS) in addition to passing certain requirements. Each student must pass NIMS…

State agencies and Extension professionals often employ IMPLAN software and associated data to conduct economic contribution analyses of the forest sector. Economic contribution reports often vary with regard to modeling, results presentation, and interpretation of estimates. We present practical guidelines for report users on how to better…

Fractals are geometric objects used to describe irregular shapes that have a fractional dimension and commonly appear in nature. Although several proposals for the study of perfect fractals at the basic level are present in the literature, only few proposals for the study of real fractals exist, which does not seem reasonable considering the…

Simulation is an effective tool for analyzing probability models as well as for facilitating understanding of concepts in probability and statistics. Unfortunately, implementing a simulation from scratch often requires users to think about programming issues that are not relevant to the simulation itself. We have developed a Python package called…

This paper introduces "Kwaras" and "Namuti," two new tools for building, managing, accessing, and mobilizing ELAN-based language documentation corpora. Kwaras integrates WAV files, ELAN annotations, and document metadata into a web-based corpus, allowing immediate access to annotations and recordings. Namuti builds from Kwaras…

The Common Ground for Action (CGA) online deliberation platform is a dynamic tool designed to encourage diverse group members to identify collective responses to deeply controversial or "wicked" public problems that have no simple solution. The program promotes authentic deliberation, while minimizing the tactics of horse-trading and…

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…

The purpose of this article is twofold. The first is to provide evaluative information on the recovery of model parameters and their standard errors for the two-parameter item response theory (IRT) model using different estimation methods by Mplus. The second is to provide easily accessible information for practitioners, instructors, and students…

Signaled active avoidance (SigAA) is the key experimental procedure for studying the acquisition of instrumental responses toward conditioned threat cues. Traditional analytic approaches (e.g., general linear model) often obfuscate important individual differences, although individual differences in learned responses characterize both animal and…

Few people who did not grow up speaking Zulu have learned the language later. There are limited resources for second language Zulu learning, whether textbooks, readers, or computerised resources. We set out to develop software for this purpose, to support learners' independent learning. Drawing on research on language learning, we used a number of…

A Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) tool is proposed in this manuscript; which consists of an interactive, simple and low-cost computer based simulation and game, with the aim of easing the teaching/learning process regarding the physics concept of projectile motion. The novelty of this proposal relies on the use of a…

When our school implemented AP Physics 1, I wanted to include a project that would extend over time, use more advanced data analysis, and teach students about handling experimental error. Using a donated 5-inch Newtonian telescope and an entry-level digital camera, the students gathered data from digital images of the four Galilean moons, Io,…