This study investigated the impact of three commonly used cardiovascular model-assisted activities on student learning and student attitudes and perspectives about science. College students enrolled in a Human Anatomy and Physiology course were randomly assigned to one of three experimental groups (organ dissections, virtual dissections, or…

Smartphones and tablets are used as experimental tools and for quantitative measurements in two traditional laboratory experiments for undergraduate physics courses. The Doppler effect is analyzed and the speed of sound is determined with an accuracy of about 5% using ultrasonic frequency and two smartphones, which serve as rotating sound emitter…

Dunlap, The University of Alabama, USA ABSTRACT In the electrical and computer engineering (ECE) curriculum at The University of Alabama, freshmen are introduced to fundamental electrical concepts and units, DC circuit analysis techniques, operational amplifiers, circuit simulation, design, and professional ethics. The two credit course has both…

This quasi-experimental study uses a pre-/post-intervention approach to investigate the quality of undergraduate students' arguments in the context of socioscientific issues (SSI) based on experiencing a semester of traditional "cookbook" instruction (N?=?79) or a semester of argument-based instruction (N?=?73) in the context of an…

Maintaining current, relevant curriculum in undergraduate Food Microbiology courses is essential for training future experts in food quality and safety. Having an understanding of the fundamental techniques (for example, polymerase chain reaction [PCR]) that are used in the food industry and regulatory agencies is critical for students entering…

When teaching motor-learning concepts, laboratory experiments can be valuable tools for promoting learning. In certain circumstances, traditional laboratory exercises are often impractical due to facilities, time, or cost. Inexpensive or free applications (apps) that run on mobile devices can serve as useful alternatives. This article details…

A collaborative effort between a junior high school and a nearby university allowed 40 eighth-grade honors students to engage in a scientific investigation within a university laboratory. These students, with their science teachers and university researchers, gathered data on egg cannibalism in a beach-spawning fish and thereby contributed to an…

The purpose of this paper is to exemplify a "grass-roots" change based on Dewey's experimental progressive education model employed in the "Bridge over the Valley" bilingual school, a Palestinian-Arab and Jewish school in Israel. In order to identify the progressive "approach" underlying this change, the…

The objective of this study was to evaluate students' self-regulated learning (SRL) skills used in a Web-intensive learning environment. The research question guiding the study was: How did the use of student SRL skills and student engagement in online activities compare between higher- and lower-performing students participating in a…

NMR spectroscopy is a powerful tool for characterizing and identifying molecules and nowadays is even used to characterize complex systems in biology. In the experiment presented here, students learned how to apply this modern technique to probe interactions between small molecules and proteins. With the use of simple organic synthesis, students…

A novel procedure for the preparation of electrochromic WO[subscript 3] films from readily available materials is presented. It is based on the electrochemical preparation of potassium tungstate from tungsten filaments of incandescent light bulbs in a potassium hydroxide solution. Tungstic acid is then produced by proton exchange using a…

A chemical separation experiment can be an interesting addition to an introductory analytical chemistry laboratory course. We have developed an experiment to extract FD&C Red Dye #40 from beverages containing cranberry juice. After extraction, the dye is quantified using colorimetry. The experiment gives students hands-on experience in using solid…

A chemometrics course is offered to students in their fifth semester of the chemistry undergraduate program that includes an in-depth project. Students carry out the project over five weeks (three 8-h sessions per week) and conduct it in parallel to other courses or other practical work. The students conduct a literature search, carry out…

ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) is a widely used technique with applications in disease diagnosis, detection of contaminated foods, and screening for drugs of abuse or environmental contaminants. However, published protocols with a focus on quantitative detection of small molecules designed for teaching laboratories are limited. A…

The goal of the present laboratory experiment is to deepen the understanding of the Nernst equation and some other concepts that are essential in electrochemistry. In this practical laboratory session, students first learn that the equilibrium potential of an electrode is related to the difference between two equilibrium inner electric potentials…