During the beginning years of teaching, science teachers develop the knowledge and skills needed to design and implement science laboratories. In this regard, this quantitative study focused on the reported laboratory practices of 61 beginning secondary science teachers who participated in four different induction programs. The results…

Sympathetic and parasympathetic divisions of the autonomic nervous system constantly control the heart (sympathetic and parasympathetic divisions) and blood vessels (predominantly the sympathetic division) to maintain appropriate blood pressure and organ blood flow over sometimes widely varying conditions. This can be adversely affected by…

In the first part of this series, which appeared in the February 2013 issue of "Techniques" (see EJ1015189), the authors discussed the need for providing a safe and healthy learning environment in career and technical programs, and introduced a model for ensuring that this type of environment exists. The critical core component of…

While I was co-teaching an introductory course in musical acoustics a few years ago, our class investigated several pieces of equipment designed for audio purposes. One piece of such equipment was a pair of noise-canceling headphones. Our students were curious as to how these devices were in eliminating background noise and whether they indeed…

Some of the results from the electrostatics portion of introductory physics are particularly difficult for students to understand and/or believe. For students who have yet to take vector calculus, Gauss's law is far from obvious and may seem more difficult than Coulomb's. When these same students are told that the minimum potential…

Communication is an important part of scientific practice and, arguably, may be seen as constitutive to scientific knowledge. Yet, often scientific communication gets cursory treatment in science studies as well as in science education. In Nature of Science (NOS), for example, communication is rarely mentioned explicitly, even though, as will be…

Gel electrophoresis, used by geneticists and forensic experts alike, is an immensely popular technique that utilizes an electric field to separate molecules and proteins by size and charge. At the microscopic level, a dye or complex protein like DNA is passed through agarose, a gelatinous three-dimensional matrix of pores and nano-sized tunnels.…

Temperature and other environmental stressors are known to affect blood pressure and heart rate. In this activity, students perform the cold pressor test, demonstrating increased blood pressure during a 1- to 2-min immersion of one hand in ice water. The cold pressor test is used clinically to evaluate autonomic and left ventricular function. This…

A hypothesis-driven laboratory is described that introduces students to the complexities of ecosystem function. Students work with live algae, brine shrimp, and sea anemones to test hypotheses regarding the trophic interactions among species, the exchange of nutrients and gases, and the optimal ratio of producers to consumers and predators in…

The fundamental purpose of "Theoretical Communities of Praxis: The University Writing Center as Cultural Contact Zone" is to investigate the situatedness of Writing Center Studies, defining it as an autonomous (sub)discipline and interdisciplinary contact zone within the larger discipline of Rhetoric and Composition. In order to meet…

Collective action researchers have focused on injunctive norms that specify approved behavior as a panacea for collective action problems. We investigate whether descriptive norms (similar behavior) can also solve these problems. We argue that descriptive norms generate social identification, which then sustains conformity to expectations.…

The purpose of this paper is to address the need for guidance on professional standards for educational practices in online education. Since 1995, the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC) has provided leadership in the introduction and successful implementation of distance education. During this time, the ASCCC has played a…

Students commonly test the effects of chemical agents on the heart rate of the crustacean "Daphnia" magna, but the procedure has never been optimized. We determined the effects of three concentrations of ethanol, nicotine, and caffeine and of a control solution on heart rate in "Daphnia." Ethanol at 5% and 10% (v/v) reduced mean heart rate to…

The University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada, is home to North America's first undergraduate program in nanotechnology. As part of the Nanotechnology Engineering degree program, a scanning probe microscopy (SPM)-based laboratory has been developed for students in their fourth year. The one-term laboratory course "Nanoprobing and…

Malachite and verdigris, two copper-based pigments, are synthesized in this experiment intended for use in a general chemistry laboratory. The preparation of egg tempera paint from malachite is also described. All procedures can be done with a magnetic stir plate, standard glassware present in any first-year laboratory, and household chemicals.…