Old bones are often discolored by the grime that infiltrates spaces in the matrix once occupied by blood vessels. This suggested that allowing dry bone to absorb colorants might be a useful way to show the three dimensional complexity of bone vascularization. The authors have developed a simple way to show blood vessels spaces in bone at a glance…

This article describes an experiment, designed by Cindy Henk, manager of the Socolofsky Microscopy Center at Louisiana State University (LSU), that involved collecting and viewing microorganisms in the air-water interface. The experiment was participated by Leesville High School microbiology students. The students found that the air-water…

The Kirby-Bauer assay, also called the disc diffusion assay, is a standard procedure used in clinical laboratories to test the susceptibility of patients' bacterial isolates to antibiotics. In the assay, the bacteria are swabbed onto an agar plate, and paper discs impregnated with antibiotics are placed on the agar. The antibiotic diffuses from…

A number of thought experiments are cited, some well-known, some not. These illustrate the power of thought experiments. Other examples are given that show some of the dangers. As well as examples from the science, some examples of visual reasoning from mathematics are also presented, again with an eye to illustrating their promise and perils.…

In April 2005 the World Year of Physics (Einstein Year in the UK and Ireland) was celebrated with an Einstein week in Stockholm House of Science. Seven experiments illustrated Einstein's remarkable work in 1905 on Brownian motion, the photoelectric effect and special relativity. Thirteen school classes with 260 pupils, 30 teachers and 25 members…

Demonstrations are sometimes perceived as merely entertaining and expendable ancillaries for lectures and laboratory sessions. Nothing can be further from the truth. If done properly, demonstrations have much more value than lectures and labs when used to teach critical thinking in the sciences. There are effective ways to model scientific…

A serendipitous finding involving static magnetic fields can be used to design experiments suitable for both science and nonscience majors. It has been reported that organisms respond differently to high-gauss magnetic fields generated by north poles than they do to those generated by south poles. Experimental tests of this hypothesis are ideal…

The acid-catalyzed isomerization of carvone to carvacrol, first reported by Ritter and Ginsburg, is especially well suited with a permanent-magnet FT instrument. The acid-catalyzed isomerization of carvone to carvacrol produced a 61% yield after a three hour reflux with 30% aqueous sulfuric acid.

We developed educational software to show graduate students how to plan molecular marker experiments. These computer simulations give the students feedback on the precision of their experiments. The objective of the software was to show students using a hands-on approach how: (1) environmental variation influences the range of the estimates of the…

In sixth grade, students understand that Earth gets visible light from the Sun, but students may also believe the Earth gets heat from the Sun. This last part is incorrect because the Sun is too far from the Earth to heat it directly. So, how does the Sun heat the Earth? When light strikes an object, it can be reflected or absorbed. Absorbed light…

Animations of molecular structure and dynamics are often used to help students understand the abstract ideas of chemistry. This qualitative study investigated how the features of two different styles of molecular-level animation affected students' explanations of how sodium chloride dissolves in water. In small group sessions 18 college-level…

Background: Most policy doctrines promote the use of scientific inquiry in the K-12 classroom, but good inquiry is hard to implement, particularly for schools with fiscal and safety constraints and for teachers struggling with understanding how to do so. Purpose: In this paper, we present the design of a multi-user virtual environment (MUVE)…

This paper reports on the reality of classroom-based inquiry learning in science, from the perspectives of high school students and their teachers, under a national curriculum attempting to encourage authentic scientific inquiry (as practiced by scientists). A multiple case study approach was taken, utilising qualitative research methods of…

Animals Alive! is designed to help teachers develop an inquiry-oriented program for studying the animal kingdom in which, whenever possible, live animals are collected locally, studied, observed, and then released completely unharmed back into their natural habitats. By careful selection and modification of the chapter questions, activities, and…

This is a resource book for four major areas of study: basic astronomy, a star's life, the planets, and the atmosphere. The activities and demonstrations included can be done in a classroom setting during the day by using readily available materials. Topics covered include: refracting and reflecting telescopes, star finder, circumpolar…