Atmospheric optical effects can teach much about physics and especially optics. Coronae--coloured rings around the sun or moon--are large-scale consequences of diffraction, which is often thought of as only a small effect confined to the laboratory. We describe coronae, how they are formed and experiments that can be conducted on ones in the sky.…

Photosynthesis is a central topic in biology education. It remains one of the most challenging, largely because of a) its conceptual difficulty, leading to lack of interest and misconceptions among students; b) the difficulties students have in visualising the process, or relating it to things they can see, especially when the topic is presented…

This paper presents a spreadsheet based simulation game for teaching and learning production management concepts of forecasting, material requirements planning, order review and release. In this game the student plays the role of a production planner managing two products, for which customer orders are placed in variable quantities throughout the…

Understanding spatial relationships among anatomic structures is an essential skill for physicians. Traditional medical education--using books, lectures, physical models, and cadavers--may be insufficient for teaching complex anatomical relationships. This study was designed to measure whether teaching complex anatomy to medical students using…

Do 9-month-old infants motorically simulate actions they perceive others perform? Two experiments tested whether action observation, like overt reaching, is sufficient to elicit the Piagetian A-not-B error. Infants recovered a toy hidden at location A or observed an experimenter recover the toy. After the toy was hidden at location B, infants in…

Unlike the airline industry, where pilots first learn to fly on simulators before navigating planes, physicians practice invasive procedures on real patients. To determine the need for the simulated training of invasive procedures prior to working on patients, we studied the views of physicians-in-training. Five hundred medical students,…

The logarithmic transformation is a commonly applied procedure in regression analysis when two or more variables have a nonlinear relationship. When the response variable is logarithmically transformed, confidence intervals for conditional means and predictions may actually be wider than their counterparts obtained from the model with the original…

A criterion-referenced computerized test is expressed as a statistical hypothesis problem. This admits that it can be studied by using the theory of optimal design. The power function of the statistical test is used as a criterion function when designing the test. A formal proof is provided showing that all items should have the same item…

This article talks about fulldome video, a new technology which has been adopted fairly extensively by the larger, well-funded planetariums. Fulldome video, also called immersive projection, can help teach subjects ranging from geology to history to chemistry. The rapidly advancing progress of projection technology has provided high-resolution…

Teaching and learning are highly social activities. Seminal psychologists such as Vygotsky, Piaget, and Bandura have theorized that social interaction is a key mechanism in the process of learning and development. In particular, the benefits of peer interaction for learning and motivation in classrooms have been broadly demonstrated through…

This snapshot introduces a computer-based representation and activity that enables students to simultaneously "see" the combinatorial space of a stochastic device (e.g., dice, spinner, coins) and its outcome distribution. The author argues that the "ambiguous" representation fosters student insight into probability. [Snapshots are subject to peer…

Latent variable models exist with continuous, categorical, or both types of latent variables. The role of latent variables is to account for systematic patterns in the observed responses. This article has two goals: (a) to establish whether, based on observed responses, it can be decided that an underlying latent variable is continuous or…

One of the simulation engines of an open-source program called the Molecular Workbench, which can simulate thermodynamics of chemical reactions, is described. This type of real-time, interactive simulation and visualization of chemical reactions at the atomic scale could help students understand the connections between chemical reaction equations…

The America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 (Public Law 111-358) was put in place to invest in innovation through research and development, to improve the competitiveness of the United States, and for other purposes. The table of contents for this Act is as follows: (1) Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents; (2) Sec. 2. Definitions; and (3)…

Addressing the problems of bullying in schools, this paper presents a novel and highly innovative pedagogical approach, building on the immersive power of virtual role-play. Educational role-play is widely accepted as a powerful instrument to change attitudes and behaviour, but faces some difficulties and disadvantages when applied to sensitive…