Flow cytometry has become an important tool in the fields of veterinary, medicine, and biological sciences in general. However, in the introductory and even in advanced university degree courses, students do not have many opportunities to be in contact with this type of technology. This situation motivated us to design a simple and inexpensive…

Safe and high-quality water is essential from both the health and environmental perspectives. Water quality is so important that the United Nations has included water in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Thus, the adequate control and treatment of water are necessities. These tasks must be…

This article describes the use of project-based instruction in activities and labs intended to develop higher-order thinking skills with high school students and pre-service teachers through the use of soap making.

A reality show about a college course--a chemistry class no less? That's what "ChemLab Boot Camp" is. The 14-part series of short videos is being released one episode at a time on the online learning site of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The novel show follows a diverse group of 14 freshmen as they struggle to master the…

A number of current reports are challenging educators of undergraduate biology students to increase the role, interactions and approaches of other disciplines. The goal stated in these reports is to produce a college graduate with the skills and competencies to solve pressing global problems such as producing ample food, fuels, and making health…

Late in the winter of 2010, teachers across Massachusetts received invitations to apply for six- to eight-week Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) in which middle or high school teachers in STEM subjects would work alongside scientists and their graduate students as they sought to solve real-world problems. This country-wide effort was funded…

Laboratory exercises, which utilize alkaline phosphatase as a model enzyme, have been developed and used extensively in undergraduate biochemistry courses to illustrate enzyme steady-state kinetics. A bioinformatics laboratory exercise for the biochemistry laboratory, which complements the traditional alkaline phosphatase kinetics exercise, was…

Since 2002, the PhET Interactive Simulations project at the University of Colorado has been working to provide learning tools for students and teachers. The project has developed over 85 interactive simulations--or sims--for teaching and learning science. Although these sims can be used in a variety of ways, they are specifically designed to make…

Research-like experiences range from relatively "canned" labs that are highly controlled by the instructor (such as those described in Lord and Orkwiszewski 2006) to more individually designed projects (e.g., Switzer and Shriner 2000; Wyatt 2005). This article describes a laboratory approach that allows for many of the benefits of independent or…

The strong-inference protocol puts into action the important concepts in Platt's often-assigned, classic paper on the strong-inference method (10). Yet, perhaps because students are frequently performing experiments with known outcomes, the protocols they write as undergraduates are usually little more than step-by-step instructions for performing…

Investigates which factors are important in revising chemistry laboratory experiments to enhance student interest and enjoyment of experimental science. Findings indicate the importance of several factors including varied content, real-world connections, items from outside the student's usual range of experience, well-paced experiments, error-free…

Evaluates the long-term use of integrated laboratories in undergraduate chemistry programs. Reports that this approach offers a number of advantages over conventional laboratories, including an improvement in the amount of student knowledge and experience gained, better preparation of students for research, and more efficient utilization of lab…

Discusses revisions in general chemistry laboratory to include group project work. Describes evaluation techniques and sample projects. (MKR)

Describes an approach to incorporating cooperative learning into the anatomy laboratory without diminishing the quality of instruction of the subject matter. Discusses the background, organization of groups and group tasks, evaluation of the approach, and potential disadvantages of cooperative learning. Contains 11 references. (JRH)

Presents a case study of an unsafe situation in a science laboratory and its administrative consequences. Discusses issues related to laboratory safety and faculty evaluation. (JRH)