Investigates some conceptual difficulties which college students have with regard to simple direct current circuits. The clinical interview technique was used with 57 students in a freshman level engineering course. (HM)

Discusses the increasing role of the physicist in plastics technology. Relationships of molecular structure to material behavior, design which is related to the material, and the practical problems of fabricating a material into an article are included. (HM)

Describes a resonance apparatus for the measurement of Cp/Cv for different gases. In the apparatus a magnetically supported piston in a vertical cylindrical glass tube containing the gas is forced into oscillation by means of a standard audio signal generator. (Author/GA)

Investigated is the period of a simple pendulum. The cases of the rigid rod and fexible cord are reviewed. By applying a variational principle it is proven that the first order correction to the period is the same for both the cord and the rod. (GA)

Describes a system of small electronic modules suitable to teach digital electronics, construct digital systems for the instrumentation of standard experiments, or, teach analog electronics. Explains both the design of the modules, and some of the instructional uses of the system. (GA)

Describes simple modifications that will permit external triggering of certain electronic timers, thus allowing their use in experiments which require greater precision than was possible with inexpensive apparatus. (GA)

Discusses how the nature of the rock and, particularly, its fossils can be used in ecology courses for schools and colleges to help students to deduce the nature of the environment at the time the rock was deposited. A checklist and ways of identifying geological sites and fossils are included. (HM)

Describes, using "nonorthogonal" displacement functions, the normal-mode motions of a massive particle and a spring of non-negligible mass to whose end the particle is attached. The results lead to the complete solution for the general motion of the spring-plus-particle system. Shows that the presence/absence of gravity is irrelevant to the…

Describes a simple experiment for measuring the speed of sound using a partially filled beer bottle as a resonator. Outlines and discusses the approximations made in arriving at the procedure. (GA)

Discusses research attempting to identify difficulties experienced by undergraduate chemistry students in performing specific logical operations at the formal level as described or implied by Inhelder and Piaget. (BT)

Presents a definition of problem solving and discusses process and stages. An outline is given of particular uses of problem-solving networks. (SA)

Describes activities of the Chemical Engineering Department at the Agriculture and Mechanical University (A&M) of Texas. Brief history of Texas (A&M) University's graduate and undergraduate programs, research efforts and the foreseeable future of the department are also included. (HM)

Describes an undergraduate chemical engineering course which was designed at North Carolina State University to introduce the experimental side of chemical process technology. The course lectures, experiments, objectives, evaluation and information sources are also discussed. (HM)

Discusses ways in which to help students solve problems effectively. On the basis of her observations of novice and expert problem solvers, the author suggests teaching the processes used by the experts directly to the students. (SA)

Describes a chemistry course for nonspecialist chemistry students at Sheffield University, England. Visitations to establishments within a twenty-mile radius of the school are listed. Emphasis is on the theory and practice of chemistry and the social implications of science. (SA)