"Active learning" has been used to describe classrooms that have varied widely with respect to instructional topics, age of learners, and the procedures used to operationalize the general notion of the term. In most cases, the specific variant of active learning under investigation has been more effective than the particular control used…

The ability of students to understand the relationship between genotype and phenotype, and the mechanisms by which genotypes and phenotypes can change is essential for students studying genetics. To this end, we have developed a four-week laboratory called Blue Genes, which is designed to help novice students discriminate between two mechanisms by…

The retrosplenial cortex (RSC) has a well-established role in contextual and spatial learning and memory, consistent with its known connectivity with visuo-spatial association areas. In contrast, RSC appears to have little involvement with delay fear conditioning to an auditory cue. However, all previous studies have examined the contribution of…

Observe Your Shadow was the title of an observational experiment that was, among others, conducted in the scope of the past year's (2014-2015) first Slovene science competition for elementary school pupils between the ages of 6 and 13. The main reason for establishing a new science competition was popularization of science and its experimental…

Despite its recognized importance for cultural transmission, little is known about the role imitation plays in language learning. Three experiments examine how rates of imitation vary as a function of qualitative differences in the way language is used in a small indigenous community in Oaxaca, Mexico and three Western comparison groups. Data from…

A simple molecular dynamics experiment is described to demonstrate transport properties for the undergraduate physical chemistry laboratory. The AMBER package is used to monitor self-diffusion in "n"-hexane. Scripts (available in the Supporting Information) make the process considerably easier for students, allowing them to focus on the…

The Virtual Laboratory was created as a complementary educational activity, with the aim of working abstract concepts from an experimental point of view. In this work, the motion of a ring rolling and slipping in front of a grid printed panel was recorded. The frames separated from this video received a time code, and the resulting set of images…

This study investigates preverbal structural and semantic processing in Japanese, a head-final language, using the maze task. Two sentence types were tested--simple scrambled sentences (Experiment 1) and control sentences (Experiment 2). Experiment 1 showed that even for simple, mono-clausal Japanese sentences, (1) there are online processing…

The rise in carbon dioxide (CO[subscript 2]) concentration in the Earth's atmosphere, and the associated strengthening of the greenhouse effect, requires the development of low carbon technologies. New carbon capture processes are being developed to remove CO[subscript 2] that would otherwise be emitted from industrial processes and fossil fuel…

This paper reports an undergraduate laboratory experiment to measure heterogeneous liquid/gas reaction kinetics (ozone-oleic acid and ozone-phenothrin) using a flow reactor coupled to an attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectrometer. The experiment is specially designed for an upper-level undergraduate Physical…

An introductory guide to deducing the mechanism of chemical reactions is presented. Following a typical workflow for probing reaction mechanism, the guide introduces a wide range of kinetic and mechanistic tools. In addition to serving as a broad introduction to mechanistic analysis for students and researchers, the guide has also been used by…

A variety of experiments with smartphones and tablet PCs allow a precise analysis of acoustic phenomena. For example, we recently described an experiment in which a noise signal simultaneously triggered harmonic acoustic resonances in the air column of a tube open at both ends and a tube closed at one end. The measured resonant frequencies were…

Students are introduced to spectrophotometry in comparing the antioxidant activity of pure eugenol and oil of cloves from a commercial source using a modified ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assay. The extraction of the essential oil from dried cloves is demonstrated to facilitate discussions on green chemistry. The anesthetic properties…

Screen inferiority in performance and metacognitive processes has been repeatedly found with text learning. Common explanations for screen inferiority relate to technological and physiological disadvantages associated with extensive reading on screen. However, recent studies point to lesser recruitment of mental effort on screen than on paper.…

Semiconductor materials are at the core of electronics. Most electronic devices are made of semiconductors. The operation of these components is well described by quantum physics which is often a difficult concept for students to understand. One of the intrinsic parameters of semiconductors is their bandgap energy E[subscript g]. In the case of…