Discusses advantages of the Stirling engine. Describes the details of constructing one from common materials, and its use for studying thermodynamics. (YP)

Discusses the use of an individually designed experiment for a chemical engineering laboratory course. Lists main ideas of the method. Provides an example of the experiment including ways to answer the questions and extensions. (YP)

Describes experimental procedures to produce magnetic fields with a thermocouple. Provides diagrams showing the apparatus, tables of experiment data, and background information on the theory. (YP)

Described are two investigations carried out in a high school biology department using a domestic microwave oven to compare the relative attributes of the autoclave and microwave oven in school use. Discussed are equipment, methods, and results of each investigation. (Author/CW)

Described is a physical pendulum experiment with variable pivot as an example of maximizing computer benefits in laboratory interfacing. The laboratory procedures using spreadsheet graphics package are discussed. A diagram of the pendulum, basic formulas, and theoretical curve is provided. (YP)

Investigates the paths of three different points in the rigid body after receiving a sudden blow by a horizontal force. Describes the setup, laboratory procedures, and results with mathematical expressions and ink tracings of the paths. (YP)

Examines the psychology of learning and its application to work in the laboratory. States that the working memory capacity of students is limited; therefore the amount of information they can process needs to be controlled and "recipe following" in the laboratory is perfectly reasonable. (RT)

The first demonstration shows rolling balls on two tracks: one is straight and the other dips down and then comes back up. Discusses the reason why the former is slower than the latter. The second demonstration shows a rising cork inside a water tube flowing downward. (YP)

Provided are two experiments which deal with the formation of callus and embryos from tissue culture of carrot roots. Outlined are the purpose, materials, procedure, and results for each. (RT)

Reported are observational limits of detectability for several single stimulus and multi-stimuli observation tasks in secondary level chemistry. Provided are tables of actual results obtained including type of observation, chemical system used, method of determining stimulus magnitude, and observational thresholds. (Author/YP)

Described is a simple demonstration that relates the techniques of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) used in medicine and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Included are materials, procedures, and probable results. (KR)

Presented is a method for demonstrating the use of various fractionating columns to resolve mixtures into individual components and to correlate the resolving powers of column packings to their "hold-up" volumes. Fractions were analyzed using refractive indices. (KR)

Presents an exercise that describes the direct extraction and purification of DNA from a small soil sample. Also discusses the subsequent amplification of a 343-bp Tn7 transposate A gene fragment (tnsA) from a strain of Pseudomonas aureofaciens 3732RNL11. Contains 21 references. (DDR)

Reports on a study that examined the prior use of simulation on frog dissection in improving students' actual dissection performance and learning of frog anatomy and morphology. Finds that students who performed the simulation before dissection performed significantly better than students who performed dissection before using the simulation or…

Describes a constructivist chemistry laboratory approach based on students' personal experiences where students had the opportunity to develop their own experimental processes. Points out both the fruitfulness and difficulties of using a graduate student as a teaching assistant. (YDS)