Discusses the history of the development of Newton's Law of Cooling. Describes an experiment conducted in the kitchen that is designed to test the rate of cooling of a hot block of iron. Finds that Newton's law does not represent very well the mechanism of heat loss. (Contains over 10 references.) (WRM)

Presents the floral foam activity which explores the relationship between volume and mass. Focuses on helping students to enhance their critical thinking skills. (YDS)

Uses charcoal briquettes, ammonia, water, table salt, and laundry bluing to create white fluffy crystals. Briquettes are placed in a bowl while the remaining ingredients are mixed together and poured over the briquettes. The result is white fluffy crystals forming on top of the charcoal. This experiment dramatizes chemical reactions to…

The author's favorite way to start the new school year is to perform a science demo for students. At the beginning of the period, he discusses the importance of making accurate observations. He tells them that he will perform a short demonstration that they are to carefully watch and then record their observations. They each have a sheet of paper…

A second semester biochemistry laboratory has been implemented as an independent projects course at California State University, Sacramento since 1999. To incorporate aspects of carbohydrate biochemistry, or glycobiology, into our curriculum, projects in lectin isolation and purification were undertaken over the course of two semesters. Through…

This study investigated the influence of sourcing and relatedness on the integration of events embedded in simple stories. Participants read pairs of "breaking news stories" from either 1 or 2 news agencies that were believed to be from the Internet. The stories within each pair were either related by virtue of shared situational dimensions (e.g.,…

This research describes a methodology for applying design- and management-based scaffolding techniques aimed to enhance cooperative behavior. Based on assumptions of how successful online learning groups act together, we developed feedback-based mechanisms that aimed at contributing to group functions of well-being, member support, and productive…

Chromatography is a process by which mixtures can be separated or substances can be purified. Biological and chemical laboratories use many different types of chromatographic processes. For example, the pharmaceutical industry uses chromatographic techniques to purify drugs, medical labs use them to identify blood components such as cholesterol,…

In multiple-cue learning (also known as probabilistic category learning) people acquire information about cue-outcome relations and combine these into predictions or judgments. Previous researchers claimed that people can achieve high levels of performance without explicit knowledge of the task structure or insight into their own judgment…

We present a set-theoretic model of the mental representation of classically quantified sentences (All P are Q, Some P are Q, Some P are not Q, and No P are Q). We take inclusion, exclusion, and their negations to be primitive concepts. We show that although these sentences are known to have a diagrammatic expression (in the form of the Gergonne…

Graduate teaching assistants (TAs) are hired to assume some of the teaching duties in large general chemistry programs. They serve as liaisons between students enrolled in the course and the professor in charge. Being assigned to teach immediately on arrival at graduate school may be overwhelming to novice graduate students. When sending them into…

Water quality experiments, especially the use of macroinvertebrates as indicators of water quality, offer an ideal context for connecting statistics and science. In the STAR program for secondary students and teachers, water quality experiments were also used as a context for teaching statistics. In this article, we trace one activity that uses…

This paper reports on a simple hands-on laboratory procedure for high school students in studying both radiation damage and DNA repair systems in bacteria. The sensitivity to ultra-violet (UV) radiation of both "Escherichia coli" and "Serratia marcescens" is tested by radiating them for varying time periods. Two growth temperatures are used in…

Inhelder and Piaget (1958) studied schoolchildren's understanding of a simple pendulum as a means of investigating the development of the control of variables scheme and the "ceteris paribus" principle central to scientific experimentation.The time-consuming nature of the individual interview technique used by Inhelder has led to the development…

Three studies sought to determine whether incubation effects could be reliably generated in a problem-solving task. Experimental variables manipulated were the duration of the interval between two problem-solving opportunities and the activity performed by the problem solvers during the interval. A multisolution anagram task was used which…