The HM Inspectorate of Education (HMIE) publication, "External quality arrangements for Scotland's colleges, September 2008," specifies that HMIE will produce a number of subject aspect reports over the four years 2008-2012. These reports complement in a subject-specific context the generic evaluations of learning and teaching in HMIE's…

Students need to reflect on the practice of science to fully understand the nature of science (NOS), which is an important component of scientific literacy. In this paper, the authors describe how to implement an explicit and reflective pedagogy in college science laboratories and share examples from their implementation in a multiple-section…

Presented is an assessment of the restructuring of a college freshman physics course. Details of the organization of the lab activities, grouping of the students, and strengths and weaknesses of the arrangements are discussed. (DS)

College physics students' understanding of the process of science, as measured by the Science Process Inventory, was better for students in a traditional, structured laboratory than in an inquiry laboratory that covered the same experiments. (MLH)

Increasing the flexibility of a well equipped laboratory by eliminating rigid scheduling gives students a choice of experiment and allows them to do experiments in depth. Student motivation, interest, and learning were increased. (DF)

Students enrolled in the introductory physics laboratory at New Mexico State University participated in this study. A stated set of objectives, developed by Dr. John M. Fowler of the Commission on College Physics, was used in the laboratory. This study attempted to measure student achievement based on the use of these objectives as opposed to the…

Reviews the use of a programmable hand-held calculator for evaluating a student's performance on a quantitative laboratory experiment. (SL)

Presents a method of teaching advanced physics laboratories which simulates research conditions and requires students to make researchlike decisions. (SL)

Describes the inception, use, and evaluation of a demonstration laboratory designed to enable first-year university students to observe physical phenomena that they did not observe in the secondary school. (Author/SL)

Discusses the improvement of safety and health conditions in academic chemistry laboratories. Included are 14 recommendations for improving laboratory safety. (SL)

This paper presents the procedures, results and conclusions of a study designed to determine whether three different methodological approaches to the laboratory for a general education physical science course would lead to the same behavioral outcomes. Students enrolled in the physical science course were randomized into one of three laboratory…

Describes the use of the magnetometer in an introductory undergraduate geology course. (SL)

Discusses the philosophy and organization of an introductory college physics course that emphasizes laboratory experiments. Also presents a brief outline of the laboratory work. (MLH)

Describes an introductory laboratory physics course covering dynamics, fields, and waves. The course involves six hourrs of laboratory work and six hours of self-study every two weeks. Understanding concepts rather than laboratory techniques is stressed. (MLH)