This work developed the Flint, Michigan water crisis as a modular case study for teaching traditional analytical chemistry concepts through the medium of environmental justice, power, and equity. An interdisciplinary framework was used to design, implement, and assess the case study in an effort to understand how the deliberate presence of…

The development of computer-based experiment set has become necessary in teaching physics in schools so that students can learn from their real experiences. The purpose of this study is to create and to develop the computer-based experiment set on simple harmonic motion of mass on springs for teaching and learning physics. The average period of…

An activity supporting the PhET interactive simulation, Models of the Hydrogen Atom, has been designed and used in the laboratory portion of a general chemistry course. This article describes the framework used to successfully accomplish implementation on a large scale. The activity guides students through a comparison and analysis of the six…

Despite their technological savvy, most students entering university lack the necessary computer skills to succeed in a quantitative analysis course, in which they are often expected to input, analyze, and plot results of experiments without any previous formal education in Microsoft Excel or similar programs. This lack of formal education results…

The authors describes their experiences incorporating the virtual lab into a simple circuit lesson during an energy unit in a sixth-grade class. The lesson included a hands-on group experiment using wire, batteries, and light bulbs to make a circuit and an online simulation, using a virtual lab. Class discussions, student inquiries, and the study…

This paper presents the customization of Easy Java Simulation models, used with actual laboratory instruments, to create active experiential learning for measurements. The laboratory instruments are the vernier caliper and the micrometer. Three computer model design ideas that complement real equipment are discussed. These ideas involve (1) a…

Laptop computers were provided for use in three biology classes with differing formats (a second year lecture course of 100 students, a third/fourth year lecture course of 50 students, and a second year course with greater than 250 students, in groups of 25 during the laboratory portion of the class) to assess their impact on student learning and…

In proteomics, complex mixtures of proteins are separated (usually by chromatography or electrophoresis) and identified by mass spectrometry. We have created 2DE Tandem MS, a computer program designed for use in the biochemistry, proteomics, or bioinformatics classroom. It contains two simulations--2D electrophoresis and tandem mass spectrometry.…

The activities described here allow students to explore the concept of diffusion with the use of common equipment such as computers, webcams and analysis software. The procedure includes taking a series of digital pictures of a container of water with a webcam as a dye slowly diffuses. At known time points, measurements of the pixel densities…

We describe accommodations that we have made to our applied computational-theoretical chemistry laboratory to provide access for blind and visually impaired students interested in independent investigation of structure-function relationships. Our approach utilizes tactile drawings, molecular model kits, existing software, Bash and Perl scripts…

With the development of LabVIEW[TM] Education Edition schools can now provide experience of using this widely used software. Here, a few of the many applications that students aged around 11 years and over could develop are outlined in the resulting front panel screen displays and block diagrams showing the associated graphical programmes, plus a…

A small group of high school students performed a virtual laboratory experiment in Second Life that mimicked a real experiment in both its appearance and procedure. Lab report grades were equivalent to report grades for hands-on experiments, and the quality of students' results was similar. Results of an attitudinal survey show that students…

Medical school curricula are undergoing transformational change in response to calls for integrating content across courses and years to enable better retention and application and for individualizing learning to meet the diverse backgrounds and thus differing needs of students. To address the related teaching challenges, faculty can employ solid…

Interactive (reformed) instruction helps students develop a deeper understanding of physics, a component of which is letting students explore physical phenomena first and then building upon their experience. However, the time required for a single group to collect sufficient data and the likelihood of measurement errors are often obstacles to…

The purpose of this project was to investigate the effects of virtual versus physical manipulation using a simulation-based laboratory activity (SBL) and a microcomputer-based laboratory activity (MBL). Both the SBL and the MBL used computers to collect, graph, and analyze data. A major difference was that the MBL allowed the students to…