Highlights activities, workshops, and lectures at the seventh Biennial Conference on Chemical Education held at Oklahoma State University (Stillwater) focusing on the current shift from principles and theories to applications in college and high school chemistry courses. (JN)

Presents a complete computer program demonstrating the relationship between volume/pressure for Boyle's Law, volume/temperature for Charles' Law, and volume/moles of gas for Avagadro's Law. The programing reinforces students' application of gas laws and equates a simulated moving piston to theoretical values derived using the ideal gas law.…

Surveys trends in hardware (logic, memory, storage) input-output technology, software, computer architecture and organization, communications, and artificial intelligence. (JN)

Describes the use of the Gaussian 70 computer programs to carry out quantum chemical calculations, including single calculations, geometry, optimization, and potential surface scans. Includes a summary of student activities and benefits for students in an honors freshman chemistry course. (SK)

Lists commercially available audiovisual materials by subject area. Includes title, producer (addresses given), catalog number, format (film, filmstrip, cassette, slides), and prices. Subject areas include: elements; equilibrium; gases; laboratory techniques and experiments; general chemistry; introductory materials (including mathematics); and…

Evaluated and described is an innovative freshman chemistry one-semester laboratory, relating changes in the course to objectives in decreasing lab expenditures, increasing learning, increasing quality, improving attitudes, and producing materials for widespread use. Lists topics for experiments, videotape presentation, and computer simulation.…

Examines recent litigation based on disputes over science and technology, the burdens on the adjudicatory process, and proposed reforms. Argues that such proposals frequently misconceive the problems faced by the courts because they concentrate on the question of technical uncertainty rather than conceptual and policy issues at stake. (Author/SK)

An engineering case study is used as the focal point of a communications course. Communications theory and practical exercises are structured around the case study described, an adaptation and extension of the power station game developed in the early 1970s. Includes outline of and sample student activities. (JN)

To provide an activity illustrating why they encounter conceptual difficulties in physics, students constructed a "world map" of physics which defines various "seas" and illustrates relationships between them. Salient features of this approach and physics concepts fostered are included. (JN)

Current information and research related to plant protein inhibitors of enzymes are reviewed, including potential uses of the inhibitors for medical treatment and for breeding plant varieties with greater resistance to insects. (DC)

Procedures for constructing an inexpensive, hands-on working model of DNA are provided, as well as suggestions for using the model in a high school or college biology class. (DC)

Some contentions of scientific creationism that conflict with accepted principles of geology (catastrophism, fossil records, earth's age, rock formation, second law of thermodynamics) are reviewed, demonstrating that these claims are based not on scientific research or reasonable conjecture but on Biblical references. (Author/DC)

Descriptions of equipment and procedures are provided for: (1) a detection system for mass-spring oscillations; (2) an economical holography table; (3) demonstration alternating-current circuit board; and (4) demonstration of damped oscillation using a set of magnets. (SK)

A 100-item five-choice multiple choice (MC) biology final exam was converted to multiple choice true-false (MTF) form to yield two content-parallel test forms comprised of the two item types. Students found the MTF items easier and preferred MTF over MC; the MTF subtests were more reliable. (Author/GK)

Laboratory procedures, equipment, teaching ideas, and resource materials related to physics are discussed. Topics include the construction of a liquid-metal pump, a hydraulic jack, and an apparatus which helps teach time/velocity graphs; current/voltage characteristics of a tungsten filament lamp; and an electric circuit game. (DC)