Describes an educational project primarily aimed at teachers and 15 to 18-year-old students that describes the essential features of a modern high-energy physics experiment. (Author/CCM)

Describes a laboratory activity in which students speculate about the extent to which Galileo actually performed an experiment to determine that all pendulums of a given length have the same period, independent of amplitude. (WRM)

Describes an experimental procedure that can be used to determine the potential bacterial contamination of stagnant water in emergency laboratory eyewash bottles. Contains 11 references. (WRM)

Explains how a school developed a model for ensuring progression in experimental and investigative science. Provides progression steps and examples of models. (CCM)

Examines the impact of the national curriculum on secondary school science teachers' work in England and Wales. Finds that, in a significant number of schools, less time is spent on practical activities in the laboratory and students are presented with a narrower range of laboratory activities. Concludes that many teachers judge the national…

Suggests that scientific thought experiments (TEs) draw upon three epistemological resources: conceptual-logical inferences, visual imagery, and bodily-motor experience. Argues that TEs are powerful because of students' thought capabilities related to imagination and visual imagery. Claims that TEs are not currently exploited by school learning…

Describes experiments with electrostatics that are convenient for classroom demonstrations or laboratory activities. These experiments use a Kelvin balance and a relatively inexpensive electronic scale with 0.01-g sensitivity and essentially stationary pans. (WRM)

Saccharomyces cerevisiae provides an excellent tool for students to enter into inquiry-based science. This very simple organism is used to demonstrate that the principles governing life apply to all organisms. Students learn to design experiments using trypan blue and heat, build upon their findings with new experiments, and refine and repeat…

Outlines a course based on a series of experiments in which students are introduced to the behavior of electrical components without any references to Ohm's law. Argues that this approach has advantages over the traditional presentation. (DDR)

Describes the redesign of the first semester general chemistry laboratory at the college level. An organic component is included in the redesign and it provides students with explicit examples of several types of operations in which chemists engage. Contains 16 references. (DDR)

Introduces an investigative microbiology laboratory activity emphasizing critical thinking and experimental design in which students isolate and characterize a bacterium from a specific habitat. Explains the procedures of the laboratory including safety, sample collection, and isolation. (YDS)

"How the World Works" is an interdisciplinary science and mathematics course in which students design and perform their own experiments, analyze the data, and present their results orally and in writing. Evaluations indicate that most students learn how to do science and gain a better appreciation for science as a process. (SAH)

Propositions about what works in program evaluation are presented: (1) evaluators should be involved from the beginning; (2) evaluation should be based on explicit programmatic theory; (3) quasi-experimental designs must have high internal validity; and (4) evaluators must combat the deterioration of experimental control that occurs in…

Proposes a neural network model for an intelligent tutoring system featuring adaptive external control of student pacing. An experiment was conducted, and students using adaptive external pacing experienced improved mastery learning and increased motivation for time management. Contains 66 references. (JKP)

Analyzes student discourse in 4 grade-12 lab groups working on microcomputer-based laboratories. Analysis reveals the role the computer plays in the group context and the ways that this context is shaped by the computer. Contains 22 references. (Author/JRH)