Describes a take-home experiment requiring only running water, a flat surface, a fluorescent light, and a ruler. Suggests elaboration of the experiment. A photograph is included. (GH)

Describes the program at The Ohio State University for preparation of secondary school earth science teachers. Discusses the shortcomings of the former program and its replacement with a new program which includes selective admission procedures, five consecutive quarters of school experience, seminars correlated with school experience, and an…

Suggests improving test validity by deciding in advance the relative importance of each competence, and asking a colleague to read over the items and comment on any discovered ambiguities. Suggests increasing test reliability with item analyses. Discusses criteria for choosing objective or essay tests. (MLH)

Proposes the finite differences relaxation method as a teaching tool in secondary and university level courses discussing electrical potential, temperature distribution in a region, and similar problems. Outlines the theory and operating procedures of the method, and discusses examples of teaching applications, including possible laboratory…

Describes a physics laboratory experiment for nonscience majors intended to illustrate indirect experimental methods of sciences treating objects too small for sensory observation. The student explores and attempts to identify an object in a closed container, using provided experimental tools and small openings in the opaque lid. (MLH)

The purpose of this study was to determine the relative effectiveness of two laboratory approaches in a general education physical science course: (1) the experimental method called the contemporary topics, and (2) the control method called the standard topics. The criterion instruments were an investigator-constructed subject content test, the…

This brief document reports on Federal support to individual universities and colleges both for science/engineering (S/E) and non-S/E activities. The study, the only source of data on total Federal obligations to individual academic and nonprofit institutions, is carried out annually by the National Science Foundation (NSF), as a result of a…

Based on the premise that the quality of domain-specific knowledge is the main determinant of expertise in that domain, an examination was made of the shift from considering general, domain-independent skills and procedures, in both cognitive psychology and artificial intelligence, to the study of the knowledge base. Empirical findings and…