Laboratory courses can serve as important avenues to equitably support introductory biology students to develop foundational scientific literacy skills while experiencing the authentic research process. We present a model for an equity-focused redesign of an introductory organismal biology laboratory course at a teaching institution with limited…

Study abroad attempts to prepare students to effectively work in a multi-national environment. This study compares students' experiences in a unit operations laboratory course offered in multiple modalities: at students' home university, and four- and eight-week study abroad. The results examine the impact of support on students' learning and…

In recent years there have been concerted efforts among water science educators to increase the number and quality of interactive classroom, field, and lab experiences in undergraduate water resource courses. This article reviews the transformation of a traditional lecture-based hydrology course with a global emphasis to a field-based, integrated…

We describe a third-year undergraduate course that focuses on multiscale modeling and protein folding and has as its primary goal the encouragement of students to integrate thinking across and beyond disciplinary boundaries. The ability to perform innovative and successful research work in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics)…

Undergraduate and graduate engineering training differ significantly. The former looks to established protocols and formulas to design and control processes while the latter often involves questioning established protocols and formulas to better suit and describe phenomena. Although we do not dispute the benefits of practical hands-on approaches,…

The background ideas and practical implementation that led to the use of a computer terminal in a physical chemistry laboratory are described. Outlines of two of the lab experiments being used in the program are included. (DT)

Creates an advanced biochemistry laboratory course that focuses on the development of experimental design and troubleshooting skills which provide students with the opportunity to design and evaluate their own experiments through semester-long independent projects with a common theme. Indicates that students were often frustrated but felt that the…

The purpose of this study was to analyze the new Zambian high school physics syllabus and practical examinations for levels of inquiry and inquiry skills. Several inquiry skills are explicitly emphasized in the introduction, aims, content objectives and assessment sections in the national high school physics syllabus. However, the syllabus is less…

The design of a freshman chemistry laboratory program involving nontraditional qualitative investigations of metal ion properties is explained. Experiments are discussed which focus on synthesis of a metal salt, properties of metal ions and their separations, and oxidation states of metals. (DT)

Discusses the offering of a one-week "fun" lab course designed for students to further their professional competence, offer intellectual enrichment, advance their avocational interests, or provide personal enjoyment. (CC)

Describes a set of laboratory experiments designed for a chemistry course revised for non-chemistry students. (MLH)

Discusses the planning and organization of an instrumental analysis course for chemistry majors designed to acquaint the students with an appreciation of the variety of ways available for a given analysis. Describes grading procedures and the use of taped lectures. (MLH)

Describes a physics laboratory course which operates without written instructions and with no required experiments. Course is based upon one- or two-week topics in mechanics, heat, electromagnetism and optics with a student-designed experiment in modern physics as an extended project. (DF)

Discusses a special topics biochemistry course that uses membrance phenomena to illustrate the interplay of many physical chemistry principles. (MLH)