"Voyager" is an educational card game involving scientific satellites, developed for use in schools with children aged 9 to 13 years. The idea of the game is to improve pupils' knowledge about the large number of scientific satellites there are in space in a fun way, while also practising numeracy skills. Several copies of the game were…

Selections of liquid aldehydes and ketones are proposed for students to determine what property is the best predictor of the color (yellow to red) of their 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazone derivative. Students may use a computer (spreadsheet or word processor) to analyze results. (Contains 1 table and 3 notes.)

The author is always looking for ways to see connections and to adapt experiences across different subjects. Combining art with other disciplines helps keep students engaged, even the really analytical and verbal learners. Aerial perspective is an art technique, a scientific principle, and a vehicle for introducing Chinese painting and…

Restriction enzymes are basic tools in recombinant DNA technology. To shape the molecular biology experiments, the students must know how to work with these molecular scissors. Here, we describe an integrated set of experiments, introduced in the "Advances in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology" postgraduate course, which covers the important…

This work is grounded in a constructivistic conception of the learning of science, more particularly on the model known as teaching-learning as oriented research. In accordance with this theoretical basis we have developed an empirical research project to investigate the teaching of electrostatics in high schools. The designs developed have…

Helping students understand the general nature of scientific models is increasingly regarded as an important goal of the middle and high school science curriculum (e.g., J. K. Gilbert & C. Boutler, 1998. "International Handbook of Science Education"; Kluwer, London; A. G. Harrison & D. F. Treagust, 2000. "Science Education," 352-381). In addition,…

Most students enter the physiology classroom with one or more fundamental misconceptions about respiratory physiology. This study examined the prevalence of four respiratory misconceptions and determined the role of case analysis in the remediation of one of them. A case study was used to help students learn about oxygen transport in the blood and…

It is well established that thought experiments are both scientifically and philosophically significant, and even that they are pedagogically significant. However, the basis and methodology for their pedagogical use is not as well established. Pedagogical thought experiments are defined as mental simulations with special features to isolate…

This paper addresses the problematic nature of pupils' attempts to use their science conceptions in contexts other than the ones in which the original learning of the concept takes place. It reports research with 60 Year-5 primary school children studying current electricity, during which the researcher employed metacognitive activities alongside…

Chemistry is a good entry to many topics in nanotechnology. This paper describes a non-science majors' course in which chemical concepts provide the background to the study of this new field. (Contains 2 tables and 1 figure.)

A new general procedure for deriving the Gibbs energy of mixing is developed through general thermodynamic considerations, and the ideal-solution model is obtained as a special particular case of the general one. The deduction of the Gibbs energy of mixing for the ideal-solution model is a rational one and viewed suitable for advanced students who…

A new project-based lab was developed for third year undergraduate chemistry students based on real world applications. The experience suggests that the total analytical procedure (TAP) project offers a stimulating alternative for delivering science skills and developing a greater interest for analytical chemistry and environmental sciences and…

A synthesis is developed to make biodiesel from vegetable oils such as soybean, sunflower, and corn oil, as an exercise in the laboratory. Viscosity measurements were used to gain an understanding of an intermolecular property of the biodiesel and that has limited the implementation of biodiesel on a wide scale basis, solidification at low…

Toys which can help to learn the basics and more in-depth chemistry concept are investigated and explained, which are also available online on the website. Some of the examples are simple LCD clock powered by citric acid of lemon, crystal radio made from simple household materials, firework, homemade snow globe, which explains the properties of…

Students hold a surprising number of ideas about the Earth's structure and process. This paper begins with a discussion on the nature of understanding in the conceptually confined domain of geosciences. There then follows a report on a study of the ideas about a range of concepts relating to "crystals", "volcanoes",…