Assesses the effectiveness of two generative learning strategies, concept mapping and laboratory experiments, to determine if one is more effective with individual learners or learning groups in science classrooms. Indicates that students starting with concept maps showed higher achievement than students beginning with laboratory experiments, and…

Claims the quality of educational preparation in basic communication skills is insufficient for students to compete in the new millennium. Discusses the communication laboratory as one educational strategy for addressing the issue of communication competency. Describes the rationale for creating a communication laboratory, curricula and…

Describes an experiment that involves the determination of the enthalpy change for a single reaction of the decomposition of aqueous hydrogen peroxide. (CCM)

Describes a science laboratory that plays an important role in making modern physics accessible to teachers, school classes, and individual students. Claims it is a resource and a complement to the traditional education system. (Author/CCM)

Uses a software package to prepare students for an organic synthesis using the Horner-Wittig reaction and investigates the role of the software in student learning. (Author/YDS)

Uses DNA laboratories to apply three different active learning strategies to undergraduate education: (1) teaming students; (2) opening laboratories; and (3) linking experiments. Discusses the effectiveness of the stream method on student attitudes and understanding. (YDS)

To learn surgical asepsis content, 70 nursing students used a student-centered interactive lab and 50 used textbooks, videotapes, and lecture-demonstrations. There were no differences in cognitive gains or ability to demonstrate the skills learned. The student-centered group was significantly more satisfied with their learning. (SK)

To decrease nursing students' anxiety during psychomotor skills testing in learning laboratories, paid peer instructors were trained to assist. Over 3 years, 270 students participated and reported positive outcomes. (SK)

Describes one student's writing project and how it develops in a writing program. Notes that his story focuses on the Holocaust and was inspired by reading over 15 books on the topic. (SG)

Just because teacher educators have more letters after their names is no reason they shouldn't find ways to continue interacting with children. In this article the author shares his thoughts on the matter and offers suggestions for how faculty members can maintain firsthand experience in the schools.

This article brings attention to decision-making in the world of state financing for higher education. It reflects on the origin of this field and the system builders in the 1960s and 1970s, who needed to figure out rational ways to both justify funding requests to the state and distribute resources among institutions. The article highlights one…

Science teachers who are committed to excellence in the classroom continually seek ways to improve teaching and learning, and the concept of multiple intelligences holds promise as a method for accomplishing this. The essence of the theory of multiple intelligences is to understand the many differences among students, the variations in the ways…

A bioinformatics laboratory exercise based on inherited human morphological traits is presented. It teaches how morphological characters can be used to study the evolutionary history of humans using parsimony. The exercise can easily be used in a pen-and-paper laboratory, but if computers are available, a more versatile analysis can be carried…

We have devised and implemented a DNA fingerprinting module for an upper division undergraduate laboratory based on the amplification and analysis of three of the 13 short tandem repeat loci that are required by the Federal Bureau of Investigation Combined DNA Index System (FBI CODIS) data base. Students first collect human epithelial (cheek)…

The process of construction of meanings for the concepts of concentration and neutralization is explored in terms of "contextualizing practices" (Lemke, 1990, "Talking Science. Language, Learning and Values," Norwood, NJ: Ablex) creation of meanings through connections established among actions and their context. This notion is expanded to include…