Since 2002, the PhET Interactive Simulations project at the University of Colorado has been working to provide learning tools for students and teachers. The project has developed over 85 interactive simulations--or sims--for teaching and learning science. Although these sims can be used in a variety of ways, they are specifically designed to make…

The integration of student research into a general chemistry laboratory and an environmental geology course has been evaluated for its effectiveness to improve (i) student attitudes about science and chemistry, (ii) student understanding of the nature of experimental science and the scientific method, and (iii) student perceptions of the…

Unless we sharply increase the training of homegrown math and science talents, we may suffer negative economic and technological consequences. One means of addressing this challenge has been through specialty schools devoted to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) training. In 1980, the North Carolina School of Science and…

A wide range of activities may be undertaken in elementary and secondary school science laboratories as part of regular curricular activities or optional classroom activities, including science fair projects. Among these is the culturing of microorganisms such as bacteria or fungi. There are various potential educational opportunities associated…

The aim of this study is to investigate biology student teachers' ideas about the purpose of laboratory work in teaching biology. Data has been collected from 82 participating students using an open-ended questionnaire and analyzed using content analysis techniques. The results show that almost all of the student teachers considered laboratory…

The efficacy of clay modeling compared with cat dissection for human muscle identification was examined over two semesters at LaGuardia Community College in Queens, NY. The 181 students in 10 sections in this study were randomly distributed into control (cat dissection) and experimental (clay modeling) groups, and the results of the muscle…

In this article, we describe a Java-based virtual laboratory, accessible via the Internet by means of a Web browser. This remote laboratory enables the students to build both direct and alternating current circuits. The program includes a graphical user interface which resembles the connection board, and also the electrical components and tools…

The widely used PASCO laboratory equipment is an excellent way to introduce students to many topics in physics. In one case, PASCO's equipment may be too good! Various experiments exist for calculating the kinetic coefficient of friction by measuring the acceleration of a sliding object under some constant force. With ever more accurate equipment,…

Human walking is a complicated motion. Movement scientists have developed various research methods to study gait. This article describes how a high school student collected and analysed high quality gait data in much the same way that movement scientists do, via the recording and measurement of motions with a video analysis tool and via…

An experiment for the undergraduate quantitative analysis laboratory involving applications of visible spectrophotometry is described. Salicylate, a component found in several medications, as well as the active by-product of aspirin decomposition, is quantified. The addition of excess iron(III) to a solution of salicylate generates a deeply…

We present a first-principles determination of the photoelectron spectra of water and hypochlorous acid as a laboratory exercise accessible to students in an undergraduate physical chemistry course. This paper demonstrates the robustness and user-friendliness of software developed for the Franck-Condon factor calculation. While the calculator is…

When students understand content deeply, they recognize main concepts and understand the relationships among ideas. But the typical processes students use to study are generally not designed to generate conceptual understandings. Instead, they tend to become passive learners. In this article, the authors present three commonly used classroom…

This article describes the rapid, green synthesis of a biaryl compound (4-phenylphenol) via a Pd(0)-catalyzed Suzuki cross-coupling reaction in water. Mild reaction conditions and operational simplicity makes this experiment especially amenable to both mid- and upper-level undergraduates. The methodology exposes students to purely aqueous…

This laboratory project is one component of a semester-long advanced biochemistry laboratory course that uses several complementary techniques to study tRNA[superscript Phe] conformational changes induced by ligand binding. In this article we describe a set of experiments in which the thermal unfolding of tRNA[superscript Phe] is studied with…

While most prepared exercises for ethics in science programs--including an excellent AAAS video series--present a complete account of the relevant facts, a role-playing exercise is described here in which the participants are provided with differing reports of events. The exercise is based on a true case involving a student who was convicted of…