General chemistry students often have difficulty writing balanced equations and performing stoichiometry calculations for precipitation reactions, in part because of difficulty understanding the symbolic notation used to represent chemical reactions. We have developed a problem-based experiment to improve student learning of these concepts, and…

A method is proposed to simplify analytical computations of the transfer function for electrical circuit filters, which are made from repetitive identical stages. A method based on the construction of Pascal's triangle is introduced and then a general solution from two initial conditions is provided for the repetitive identical stage. The present…

In physics, women find contexts concerning human biology, medical applications, or natural phenomena highly relevant (Hoffmann, 2002), and the rareness or absence of these in physics curricula may make it more difficult for women to develop and maintain their interest in physics. To date, research in physics education addressing student's…

A semester-long laboratory course was designed and implemented to familiarize students with modern biochemistry and molecular biology techniques. The designed format involved active student participation, evaluation of data, and critical thinking, and guided students to become independent researchers. The first part of the course focused on…

Students are seldom given an authentic experience within school that allows them the opportunity to solve real-life complex engineering design problems that have meaning to their lives and/ or the greater society. They are often confined to learning environments that are limited by the restrictions set by course content for assessment purposes and…

The purpose of this paper was to examine the perception pre-service teachers hold to the nature of the relationship between physics and mathematics. The study examined this relationship in reference to their performance in problem solving and strategies they used. The results of this empirical study suggested that most participants hold a naïve…

Three students with mild to moderate intellectual and multiple disability, enrolled in a self-contained functional curriculum class were taught to use a self-monitoring checklist and science notebook to increase independence in inquiry problem-solving skills. Using a single-subject multiple-probe design, all students acquired inquiry…

This article presents the combination of three enhanced educational approaches for training future scientists. These methods incorporate skills generally not introduced in the freshman year: student-led blackboard introductions; the writing of scientific papers; and the design, execution, and presentation of an independent lab module. We tested…

The study investigated the Effects of a Target-Task Problem-Solving Model on Senior Secondary School Students' Performance in Physics. The research design was a quasi-experimental, non-randomized, non-equivalent pretest, post-test using a control group. The study was conducted in two schools purposively selected and involved a total of 120 Senior…

This study investigated how question prompts and feedback influenced knowledge acquisition and cognitive load when learning Newtonian mechanics within a web-based multimedia module. Participants were one hundred eighteen 9th grade students who were randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions, forming a 2 x 2 factorial design with the…

A typical textbook problem in rotational dynamics involves calculating the angular acceleration of a massive pulley due to a string, such as in the example shown in Fig. 1. The string is assumed to be massless and to move without slipping over the pulley, which is mounted on a frictionless axle. If T[subscript L] and T[subscript R] are the…

Science is the study of nature's rules. The most basic of these are the laws of physics, most of which are expressed in equation form. Physics equations show how concepts connect to one another. But does a study of these equations enhance student understanding? Not always, for too often in an introductory course students are tempted (or even…

This article describes the use of a progressive paper in a capstone course to develop students' writing skills. A progressive paper is one that students write one section at a time: as they add each new section, they go back and revise the previous parts based on actionable feedback from the instructor. In this course, the progressive paper takes…

A novel course using green chemistry as the context to teach general chemistry fundamentals was designed, implemented and is described here. The course design included an active learning approach, with major course graded components including a weekly blog entry, exams, and a semester project that was disseminated by wiki and a public symposium.…

A central goal of nonmajors chemistry courses is to instill within students the sense that chemistry does not occur in a vacuum but rather permeates everyday life. To encourage students to consider chemistry within the broader context of society and public policy, a week-long module in a survey course for nonmajors was designed to connect…