In a senior modern physics laboratory, design" or ingenuity" experiments were introduced to acquaint students with methods of doing complete experiments. The former deals with proposed long term studies while the latter deals with apparatus and short term actual studies. Students rated the design" experiments higher. (Author/TS)

Discusses a teaching program for introductory chemistry laboratories that allows for differences in student background and ability. The flexible program involves self-pacing and a classification of experiments; this permits slower students to proceed through remedial loops while advanced students proceed to more difficult experiments. (MLH)

Presents the results of educational experiments aimed at incorporating APL programming techniques in an undergraduate physical-analytical laboratory course. Included are a list of first year experiments and some examples of operations. (CC)

Discusses implementation and advantages of take-home experiments, including three respective examples in acoustics, magnetism, and optics. The activities can be categorized into demonstration experiments, see-what-you-can-find-out'' experiments, and experiments requiring preparatory class discussion or written directions. (CC)

Argues that the traditional chemistry laboratory manual is not inherently a cookbook and the modern course manual does not automatically eliminate the cookbook approach. Suggests that it is the nature of the teacher guidance that students receive before, after, and during the laboratory work that makes a chemistry program meaningful and effective.…

Discusses the philosophy and operation of a self-instructional laboratory at MIT which utilizes visual materials reinforced by audio tapes and is designed to give the student a taste of how to collect, display, and interpret data. Indicates that the approach results in the flexibility needed to serve self-paced courses. (CC)

Usually the textbook descriptions of analytical methods fall short of making comparisons among several methods employed for analysis. Emphasis should be placed on making decisions about using a particular method on the basis of its merits. Listed are experiments that could be used for instruction. (PS)