One measure of a scholar's contributions to his field is the extent to which his work has impact beyond his area or original focus. The authors' examine N. L. Gage's impact in the area of school effects research. The first of Gage's impacts has been in arguing for a pragmatic orientation to the building of a scientific base for the study of…

This article discusses what has been called the bioart revolution. The author explores some of the common themes and major exhibits of this movement leading him to consider the role of the amateur or outsider engaging in science. The author closes with the case of Steven Kurtz, an artist currently facing 20 years in jail and a quarter of a million…

In this era of dramatically increased astronomy education research efforts, there is a growing need for standardized evaluation protocols and a strategy to assess both student comprehension of fundamental concepts and the success of innovative instructional interventions. Of the many topics that could be taught in an introductory astronomy course,…

The goal of this laboratory exercise is to increase student understanding of the impact of nervous system function at both the organismal and cellular levels. This inquiry-based exercise is designed for an undergraduate course examining principles of cell biology. After observing the movement of "Caenorhabditis elegans" with defects in their…

Membrane transport is a fundamental concept that undergraduate students of cell biology understand better with laboratory experience. Formal teaching exercises commonly used to illustrate this concept are unbiological, qualitative, or intricate and time consuming to prepare. We have developed an exercise that uses uptake of radiolabeled nutrient…

On April 25, 1953, three papers were published in "Nature," the prestigious scientific journal, which exposed the "fundamentally beautiful" structure of DNA to the public, and sounded the starting gun of the DNA Revolution. The authors of these papers revealed the now-famous double-helix structure of DNA, thereby unlocking the…

The purpose of this study was to determine the beliefs about biological evolution held by college freshman students in one Catholic university in the Philippines. After 4 weeks of constructivist-inspired instruction, interviews and journal entries revealed that the students have diverse beliefs about the theory of evolution. They posited…

Roles of variables is a new concept that captures tacit expert knowledge in a form that can be taught in introductory programming courses. A role describes some stereotypic use of variables, and only ten roles are needed to cover 99% of all variables in novice-level programs. This paper presents the results of an experiment where roles were…

A consensus has long existed that the scientist-practitioner model has failed to reflect what was envisioned by the Boulder Conference participants and endorsed by counseling psychology at the Greyston and Georgia Conferences. Counseling psychology's commitment, however, to the scientist-practitioner model has not faltered. Furthermore,…

A laboratory experiment is presented for the upper-level undergraduate physical chemistry curriculum in which the ternary phase diagram of water, 1-propanol and n-heptane is measured using proton nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. The experiment builds upon basic concepts of NMR spectral analysis, typically taught in the undergraduate…

The kinetics experiments on the ligand-C[subscript 60] exchange reactions on (dihapto-[60]fullerene) pentacarbonyl tungsten(0), ([eta][superscript 2]-C[subscript 60])W(CO)[subscript 5], form an educational activity for the inorganic chemistry laboratory that promotes graphical thinking as well as the understanding of kinetics, mechanisms, and the…

This study was carried out within the framework of environmental education (EE) and its object was the recording, categorization and interpretation of kindergarten teachers' conceptions about two basic concepts: nature and the environment, which are key concepts of environmental education. The study involved the participation of 110 public…

Molecular biology concepts can be quite abstract and difficult to grasp for even the most talented student. Reducing potential frustration in the learning process, allowing students to take ownership of the course material, and training students to think critically and analytically are common objectives for educators. In this article, pedagogical…

The study was carried out with 175 Turkish students by using drawings at different ages understanding of gene, DNA and chromosome concepts. Students from 8th, 9th, 11th grades and, science and biology student teachers were simply asked to draw the structure of gene, DNA and chromosome in a cell and also to give explanations about these three…

The purpose of this research study is to explore year 6, 8 & 11 (13, 15 and 17 years old respectively) Turkish pupils' views about the particulate nature of matter within the context of phase changes. About 300 pupils participated in the study. Questionnaires distributed to year 6, 8 and 11 pupils included 6-item open-ended questions about (a)…