The notion that acid salts exist only for diprotic and polyprotic acids is found in many high school and university textbooks, although the "only" condition is not always stated explicitly. A fairly simple experiment shows that there is a pronounced exothermic effect when pure acetic acid is added to potassium acetate. Experiments with similar…

During the past few decades, a wide consensus has been reached in the community of science educators that it is almost unimaginable to conduct a quality science education without including the history and philosophy of science in some form in the science curriculum, and this is especially the case for physics education (Matthews 1994). However, in…

Demonstrating how surface chemistry and self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) control the macroscopic properties of materials is challenging as it often necessitates the use of specialized instrumentation. In this hands-on experiment, students directly measure a macroscopic property, the floatation of glass coverslips on water as a function of…

The aim of the "Tools of the Mind" prekindergarten curriculum is to enhance children's executive function skills within an instructional context that promotes the basic academic and social skills that prepare them for kindergarten and beyond. To investigate the effectiveness of "Tools" in achieving this aim, the authors are…

The study reviewed in this paper examined three separate methods for teaching the "control of variables strategy" ("CVS"), a procedure for conducting a science experiment so that only one variable is tested and all others are held constant, or "controlled." The study analyzed data from a randomized controlled trial of…

Since the adoption of faceted search in a small number of academic libraries in 2006, faceted library catalogs have gained popularity in many academic and public libraries. This dissertation seeks to understand whether faceted search improves the interactions between searchers and library catalogs and to understand ways that facets are used in…

Assuming that textbooks give literary expression to cultural and ideological values of a nation or group, we propose the analysis of chemistry textbooks used in Brazilian universities throughout the twentieth century. We analyzed iconographic and textual aspects of 31 textbooks which had significant diffusion in the context of Brazilian…

Six-month-olds reliably discriminate different monkey and human faces whereas 9-month-olds only discriminate different human faces. It is often falsely assumed that perceptual narrowing reflects a permanent change in perceptual abilities. In 3 experiments, ninety-six 12-month-olds' discrimination of unfamiliar monkey faces was examined. Following…

Relations between parental reports of children's interests related to science and opportunities for science learning were examined longitudinally in 192 children between ages 4 and 7 years. Science interests were tracked during 1-year periods (ages 4-5, 5-6, and 6-7) and were more prevalent among boys, particularly prior to age 6 years. Gender…

In this paper we report on the use of two different light to frequency converters, four different light sources, three of which are novel and inexpensive, and a hand held digital multimeter with a frequency counter, suitable for making accurate and rapid determination of the optical inverse square law exponent of -2 to better than [plus or…

Proteins are a diverse class of biochemical macromolecules, including substances as (apparently) unrelated as silk and sinew, hair and horn, feathers and flagella, enzymes and epidermis, gelatine (jelly) and gluten and gore, spider web, meat and fish muscle. Yet they are unified by being polymers of amino acids. Discovery of the nature of proteins…

A series of experiments on operant variability by Neuringer and colleagues (e.g., Neuringer, 1986, 2002; Page & Neuringer, 1985) have been repeatedly cited as showing that behavioral variability can be reinforced by making reinforcement contingent on it. They showed that the degree of variability in pigeons' eight-peck sequences, as measured by U…

With the growing size of the "Millennial Generation" and its potential impact on American democracy, the civic education of this cohort deserves study. Using news media and discussion of politics at home and in the classroom at four public high schools in New Jersey, we conducted an experiment to measure changes in media use, political…

In an experimental paradigm adapted from Hari (1995), forty observers listened via headphones to 8 binaural clicks: 4 left-ear leading followed by 4 right-ear leading with either 38 or 140 ms interstimulus intervals (ISIs). Concurrently, they viewed either foveal or peripheral visual stimuli designed to activate either the parvocellular or…

Phagocytosis and exocytosis are two cellular processes involving membrane dynamics. While it is easy to understand the purpose of these processes, it can be extremely difficult for students to comprehend the actual mechanisms. As membrane dynamics play a significant role in many cellular processes ranging from cell signaling to cell division to…