Described are four demonstration/participation laboratories in which students analytically and experimentally evaluated various catheter-transducer blood pressure measurement systems. The activities were included in a graduate level course entitled "Theory and Techniques of Bioinstrumentation," taught by the Department of Electrical Engineering…

This paper reports a study designed to examine the types of behaviors students exhibit while conducting laboratory activities and assess the effectiveness of strategies students employ. The sample was 42 students enrolled in a physics lab section at a single university. Three types of data were collected: (1) observational data during the lab…

The purpose of this study was to determine if a 7-hour "Project Learning Tree" (PLT) workshop had a positive effect on pre-service teachers' attitudes toward teaching environmental education. The subjects of the study were 140 pre-service teachers enrolled in an elementary science education course in Pennsylvania. Attitude was measured…

Students (n=45) in an introductory course in hydrology used a Vee map to guide their laboratory investigation. The Vee mapping technique was utilized by groups of students working together during the investigation and was graded with a scoring rubric developed by the instructor. At the end of the investigation, students completed a survey…

This study examined how the science methods program at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln affected pre-service elementary teachers' attitudes toward teaching science. A pretest/posttest design was used to evaluate the change in attitude over the course of the semester. Results of the study indicated that the methods course positively influenced…

Two different methods of collecting information about student activity in the laboratory were compared using a series of videotape recordings. One method was based entirely on the systematic observation of student behavior (interaction analysis); the second method involved students describing their laboratory activities while watching excerpts…

For the last five years I have asked students of the Diploma of Teaching and Graduate Diploma of Education to write "an individual science autobiography". They were asked to include their recollections of any science lesson that either encouraged them to do science or nearly put them off altogether. They were also asked if the content of the…

The Prime Minister's Committee on Natural Science in Education in Great Britain reported in 1918 that "...in many schools more time is spent in laboratory work than the results obtained can justify." Seventy years later this conclusion can often still be drawn. This is particularly a problem in open distance education where laboratory practicals,…

This paper describes research using the Educational Resources Information Center--ERIC database to conduct a content analysis of education journals for science teachers. The journals analyzed: "Science and Children" (S&C), "The Science Teacher" (TST), and "The Journal of College Science Teaching" (TJCST), are used…