Providing training for pre-service teachers at historic sites necessitates a reorientation for historic site-based teacher education programs away from strict content learning towards programs that emphasize the modeling of disciplinary problem solving and transfer learning. Outlined here is a History Lab model for teacher education that uses the…

College students in the non-English-speaking world have to overcome formidable barriers in reading and writing when their medium of instruction is English. One particular problem faced by science majors is the writing of lab reports, a demanding task that might not be effectively supported by the standard guides and manuals available. This paper…

This exercise demonstrates the principle of parsimony in constructing cladograms. Although it is designed using mammalian cranial characters, the activity could be adapted for characters from any group of organisms. Students score categorical traits on skulls and record the data in a spreadsheet. Using the Mesquite software package, students…

Dissection of lab specimens is a common procedure in science classrooms, yet there are many unasked and unexamined questions relating to this practice. In addition to ethical considerations, there are personal and environmental health impacts of using conventional dissection, which has historically included animals and animal organs embalmed in…

Solid potassium permanganate (KMnO[subscript 4]) is shown to react in a variety of ways with small organic amines or oxygenated compounds depending on whether they are liquids or solids and whether water is present. In particular, its reaction with solid oxalic acid dihydrate can be initiated by the moisture in one's breath, making an intriguing…

A critical factor for the increased nucleophilicity of the pyridine nitrogen in 4-(dimethylamino)pyridine (DMAP) is electron donation via resonance from the amino group into the aromatic ring that increases electron density on the pyridine nitrogen. To explore how important this resonance effect is, 4-(dimethylaminomethyl)pyridine (DMAMP) was…

Sidman (1994) noted that the existence of a member that is common to more than one class may produce either class merger (union) or class intersection. A multiple-selection, matching-to-sample test was developed to examine the conditions under which these outcomes occur. Test trials each required three conditional discriminations involving…

This general chemistry laboratory uses differences in solubility to separate a mixture of caffeine and aspirin while introducing the instrumental analysis methods of GCMS and FTIR. The drug mixture is separated by partitioning aspirin and caffeine between dichloromethane and aqueous base. TLC and reference standards are used to identify aspirin…

A simple and direct method for measuring the absorption of carbon dioxide by two different substances is described. Lithium hydroxide has been used for decades to remove the gas from enclosed living spaces, such as spacecraft and submarines. The ratio of the mass of carbon dioxide absorbed to the mass of lithium hydroxide used obtained from this…

A titration curve with multiple inflection points results when a mixture of two or more reducing agents with sufficiently different reduction potentials are titrated. In this experiment iron(II) complexes are combined into a mixture of reducing agents and are oxidized to the corresponding iron(III) complexes. As all of the complexes involve the…

In this study, smartphone was used to alter the traditional procedure by involving students in active learning experiences prior to the laboratory meeting. The researcher surveyed students' view on the effect of using smartphone to enhance learning in the general physics laboratory. The use of smartphone was evaluated by having 120 students who…

This multiple case study investigated how college students with diverse ethno-linguistic backgrounds used chemistry vocabulary as a way to look at their discursive identities and cultural border crossings during first semester general chemistry laboratories. The data were collected in two major forms: video-taped laboratory observations and…

Language learning tools have evolved to take into consideration new teaching models of collaboration and communication. While second language acquisition tasks have been taken online, the traditional language laboratory has remained unchanged. By continuing to follow its original configuration based on individual work, the language laboratory…

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact on learning, attitudes, and costs in a redesigned general education undergraduate biology course that implemented web-based virtual labs (VLs) to replace traditional physical labs (PLs). Over an academic year, two new modes of VL instruction were compared to the traditional PL offering: (1) all…

The effectiveness of writing centre interventions on student writing in higher education has been well-documented in academic literacies studies. This paper changes the focus of investigation from student to consultant and, consequently, explores the way in which an academic writing centre can function as a mentoring environment for young…