This letter comments on the paper "Analysis of Citric Acid in Beverages: Use of an Indicator Displacement Assay" ["J. Chem. Educ." 2010, 87 (8), 832-835 (EJ918557)]. Discrepancies in figures and host:indicator complex behavior are discussed and an alternative experimental protocol presented.

This article responds to "Laboratory experiments as a tool in the empirical economic analysis of high-expectation start-ups" by Martin Curley and Piero Formica, published in the December 2008 issue of "Industry and Higher Education". Curley and Formica introduce a new concept for high-expectation start-ups, involving the use of "laboratory…

High-expectation start-ups are firms launched by entrepreneurs with high ambitions for growth. The encounter between new technology and entrepreneurship that characterizes such new ventures has a significant impact on the nature and speed of economic development, driving the growth of high-technology industries and helping to make the economic…

Advanced Placement (AP) Chemistry and the National AP Chemistry Examination are both critical to secondary level institutions nationwide. The use of a national embossing stamp to attest to successful completion of an AP Chemistry course and exam to ensure college credit is a novel idea worth consideration. Moreover, the concept could be expanded…

There are obstacles to teaching science; however, these obstacles are not insurmountable. One obstacle is the students themselves. Students often labor under the misconception or anxiety that the course material will be too difficult to understand, or boring (mind-numbing), or that the information learned will not be applicable in their day-to-day…

Discusses the effects of expectancy on learning in a life science instructional laboratory exercise. Contends that prior knowledge directs the act of observing. Investigates the role of prior conceptions on secondary school students' ability to observe scientific phenomena. (Contains 30 references.) (YDS)

Explains the qualities of a good laboratory experiment. (YDS)

The author proposes a design for science instruction in the middle school years, ages 9-13. (SJL)

Computer programs and models are used to express respect for life by not sacrificing any animal but these alternatives might be deeply flawed. Alternatives to dissection are perverse alternatives that tend to preserve the features of inappropriate dissections like destructiveness, reductionism and objectification.

A group exercise, suggested to be most effective when used near the semester-end, enables entry-level students to appreciate the application of plant biology and makes botany labs experimental. It is believed that this series of labs helps students to appreciate their own learning when they teach and explain things to others.

The problem with organic chemistry labs is that the educational objectives of lab instructions are often vague and seldom stated. The great majority of organic chemistry labs in American colleges and universities are based on verification experiments.

Comments on this issue's article by Ward, Vela, and Hass on children's category learning. Suggests that aspects of the authors' methodology may have led them to underestimate holistic processing. (PCB)

Lab reports are the dreaded assignments of the laboratory course. Students dislike them, because they can be tedious and time-consuming. Instructors dislike them, because they significantly increase the grading load. For this reason, lab reports are often omitted or replaced by alternatives such as responses to lab questions, fill-in-the-blank lab…

In psychology, experimental studies are susceptible to the biases of the investigator in problem formulation, operationalization, sample selection, and data interpretation. Thus, what we regard as an objective, value-free approach to science is neither unbiased nor value-free. (GC)

The advantages of using invertebrates in teaching physiological principles are discussed. The ability to illustrate with greater clarity physiological principles, the range and variety of physiological processes available for examination, and the unlimited possibilities for student research are topics of discussion. (KR)