Students with visual impairments have the same span of cognitive abilities as their peers, but science instruction typically relies very heavily on vision. The preponderance of visually oriented and visually complex science concepts poses significant challenges to learning among students with visual impairment. This study is engaging, hands-on…

While entropy is often described as "disorder," it is better thought of as a measure of how spread out energy is within a system. To illustrate this interpretation of entropy to introductory college or high school students, several activities have been created. Students first study the relationship between microstates and macrostates to…

Inquiry-based approaches to science education are central to recent South African primary and secondary school curricula, but have been found challenging to adopt in disadvantaged township contexts. It is therefore important to find ways of introducing inquiry-based approaches, where pupils are encouraged to investigate phenomena they are…

The utility of Just-In-Time-Teaching (JITT) is compared across course topics and groups of students not receiving JITT exercises in class. JITT feedback incorporated various active learning exercises based on students' performance on online homework problems from Sapling Learning. With over 200 students in two sections participating in the…

In this paper, we present a simple spreadsheet based simulation activity that can be performed by students at the undergraduate level. This simulation is implemented in free open source software (FOSS) LibreOffice Calc, which is available for both Windows and Linux platform. This activity aims at building the probability distribution for the…

A simple and economical experimental setup is described that enables multiple individuals or groups within a laboratory class to measure the thermal melting of double stranded DNA simultaneously. The setup utilizes a basic spectrophotometer capable of measuring absorbance at 260 nm, UV plastic cuvettes, and a stirring hot plate. Students measure…

The Wittig reaction is one of the most useful reactions in organic chemistry. Despite its prominence early in the organic chemistry curriculum, the exact mechanism of this reaction is still under debate, and this controversy is often neglected in the classroom. Introducing a simple computational study of the Wittig reaction illustrates the…

An improved procedure for laboratory determination of the heat capacities of metals is described. The temperature of cold water is continuously recorded with a computer-interfaced temperature probe and the room temperature metal is added. The method is more accurate and faster than previous methods. It allows students to get accurate measurements…

Elementary, middle-level, and high school science teachers commonly find their students have misconceptions about heat and temperature. Unfortunately, student misconceptions are difficult to modify or change and can prevent students from learning the accurate scientific explanation. In order to improve our students' understanding of heat and…

This paper argues that, despite its difficulties, climate change can (and perhaps needs to) be taught rigorously to students by enquiry rather than through transmission and that such a method will enable students to make judgments on other issues of scientific controversy. It examines the issues and barriers to the teaching of climate change,…

In this paper, we describe laboratory and classroom exercises designed to obtain the "fundamental" equation of a rubber band by combining experiments and theory. The procedure shows students how classical thermodynamics formalism can help to obtain empirical equations of state by constraining and guiding in the construction of the…

In this activity, science education and modern technology are bridged to teach students at the high school and undergraduate levels about protein folding and to strengthen their model building skills. Students are guided from a textbook picture of a protein as a rigid crystal structure to a more realistic view: proteins are highly dynamic…

Thermal cameras are useful tools for use in scientific investigation and for teaching scientific concepts to students in the classroom. Demonstrations of scientific phenomena can be greatly enhanced visually by the use of this cutting-edge technology. (Contains 7 figures.)

Earth science has a part to play in broadening students' learning experience in physics. The Earth Science Education Unit presents a range of (free) workshops to teachers and trainee teachers, suggesting how Earth-based science activities, which show how we understand and use the planet we live on, can easily be slotted into normal science…

This study examines the use of inquiry-based instruction to promote the understanding of critical concepts in thermodynamics and heat transfer. Significant research shows that students frequently enter our courses with tightly held misconceptions about the physical world that are not effectively addressed through traditional instruction. Students'…