Presents activities that use marine organisms with plant-like appearances to help students build classification skills and illustrate some of the less obvious differences between plants and animals. Compares mechanisms by which sessile plants and animals deal with common problems such as obtaining energy, defending themselves, successfully…

Identifies and defines the student practice of "fudging" which involves faking, fabricating, or stealing data. Identifies factors contributing to and motivations for this behavior in (n=6) high school students. (Author/MKR)

Presents an experiment that demonstrates conservation of momentum and energy using a box on the ground moving backwards as it is struck by a projectile. Discusses lab calculations, setup, management, errors, and improvements. (JRH)

Presents an experiment to study the acceleration of a cart moving up and down an inclined plane. Demonstrates how multitiming and the study of the movement in both directions allows the determination of the component of gravitational force along an inclined plane without any assumptions about friction. (JRH)

Presents and analyzes an example from the literature on genetics studies in order to highlight the difficulties in classifying biological materials and the personal equation that finds its way into the measurement. (JRH)

Presents activities to teach the concept of projectile motion to high school students using a spring-loaded dart gun, carbon paper, meterstick, ruler, white paper, tape, and a student's desk. (JRH)

Investigation of (n=31) physics students' analysis of videodisc-recorded images with treatments over an extended time found no significant learning difference between using simultaneous-time and delayed-time analysis for student understanding of kinematics graphs. (Author/MKR)

Describes methods to redevelop lab activities for use in schools with limited resources for proper facilities and equipment. Discusses take-home labs, paper-and-pencil labs, and lab station activities. (JRH)

Describes a sensitive, simple, and inexpensive microrespirator that may be used readily by students. Discusses materials and methods for construction and classroom applications. (LZ)

Provides a method, using the Rowland ring as a specimen, to observe the phase transition process directly on the oscilloscope and even extract the critical exponent of ferromagnetic transition. Includes theory, experimental setup, and results. (MVL)

Discusses the history and current developments of the Biosphere 2 Project, a prototype for enclosed self-sustaining structures for space colonization built in the Arizona Desert. Biosphere 2 was created to educate and provide solutions to environmental problems and revenue from research. (MCO)

Author provides details about Helmont's experiment that was a milestone in the history of plant biology since it marked the start of experimental plant physiology. Concludes that Jean Baptista van Helmont's supposedly simple experiment becomes complex when trying to determine the methods he used, evaluate his sources of experimental error, and…

Describes how microscale labs can be used as a tool to transform teaching instead of simply a less expensive substitute to traditional labs. Presents an activity that introduces students to density and the advantages of multiple measurements and averaging. (ZWH)

The ninth installment of the Science in a Box series (self-contained, hands-on activities for students grades three and up) presents activities for learning to use the sense of touch to determine how different objects conduct heat. All projects in the series are inexpensive and easy to assemble. (SM)