From 2008 to 2010, project-based learning (PBL) was a major focus of the Teacher Leadership Institute (TLI), undertaken by the West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE), as a method for teaching 21st century skills. Beginning in January 2011, a summative evaluation was conducted to investigate the effect of PBL implementation on teachers'…

This qualitative interpretative study serves to identify and compare the verbal discourse practices exhibited by students in traditional and inquiry-based undergraduate labs for non-science majors and to identify factors in both lab contexts that would facilitate and / or inhibit student participation in the discourse practices of the labs.…

4-H youth development programs nationwide are responding to the 4-H National Science, Engineering, and Technology (4-H SET) Initiative to involve more youth in Science, Engineering, and Technology activities. The goal is to increase the numbers of youth choosing to pursue SET careers. This article describes a program that is having great success…

This paper describes a forensic science simulation programme applicable for use in colleges. Students were asked to find a putative suspect by DNA fingerprinting using a simple protocol developed in this study. DNA samples were obtained from a hair root and a drop of blood, common sources of DNA in forensic science. The DNA fingerprinting protocol…

Incandescent lamps with tungsten filaments have been in use for about a century while being gradually replaced by fluorescent lamps; in another generation both will quite probably be largely replaced by light-emitting diodes. Incandescent lamps (simply called "lamps" in what follows) burn out after a lifetime that depends mostly on the temperature…

When teaching the subject of elasticity, it is often difficult to find a straightforward quantitative laboratory that can give a "hands-on" feel for the subject. This paper presents an experiment that demonstrates the essentials of elasticity by observing the behavior of marshmallows under a compressive load. Like other marshmallow-based…

Energy concepts are fundamentally important for describing and analyzing systems ranging from subatomic particles to spiral galaxies. In general, students first encounter such concepts in introductory courses that typically focus on forms of energy, energy transfer, and conservation laws. Within these courses, conservation of mechanical energy is…

The author presents several upper elementary science activities involving tree limbs that were collected after severe weather conditions. The activities involved 3rd-grade students arranging tree limb pieces in the correct order from the trunk to the tip of the limb, measuring the pieces, determining the age of a tree limb by its rings,…

With all the technology today, the authors were surprised to read a recent British study that found a connection between the length of a woman's index (2D) and ring (4D) fingers to her athletic ability. Upon further investigation they found that many studies have examined the relationship between the length of the index finger (2D) to the ring…

The purpose of this activity is to introduce students to concepts of short-range and long-range scattering, and engage them in using indirect measurements and probabilistic models. The activity uses simple and readily available apparatus, and can be adapted for use with secondary level students as well as those in general physics courses or…

Elementary teachers often struggle with how to design and implement inquiry instruction with their students. For many, just understanding what inquiry is can be difficult--let alone designing activities that support high levels of inquiry. In this article, the authors present a continuum by which to evaluate an activity's level of inquiry. Then,…

We present a simple device for demonstrating the essential aspects of polymers in flow in the classroom. Rubber bands are used as a macroscopic model of polymers to allow direct visual observation of the flow-induced changes in orientation and conformation. A transparent Perspex Couette cell, constructed from two sections of a tube, is used to…

The role of aesthetic experiences for learning was examined in elementary school science. Numerous authors have argued for a science education also involving aesthetic experiences, but few have examined what this means empirically. Recordings of children's talk with each other and with the teacher during hands-on activities in nine different…

Our classrooms are filled with engineering majors who take a semester-long course in static equilibrium. Many students find this class too challenging and drop their engineering major. In our introductory physics class, we often breeze through static equilibrium; to physicists equilibrium is just a special case of Newton's second law. While it is…

Biodiversity has economic value to humans and many suggest that of all groups who should be most interested in the preservation of biodiversity, it should be industries leading the way, as biodiversity has provided, and will continue to provide, many raw materials used by industries around the world. This is especially the case for the…