When Mentos candies are dropped into a bottle of Diet Coke, a foamy fountain jets out of the beverage container. It has previously been argued that ingredients found in Mentos candies significantly enhance this fountaining effect. Other previous work has demonstrated that the kinetics of foam production can be quantitatively monitored using a…

Bounded rationality is a key concept with implications across all areas of economics. To help students better understand the nature, causes and forms of bounded rationality in individual choice, the authors present a flexible classroom experiment. Beyond providing students with some first-hand evidence of bounded rationality, the experiment shows…

In this work we study the motion of a small metal ball along an inclined multi-slotted track. Specifically, the effect of the slot width on the ball speed at the lower part of the track is analyzed in detailed both analytically and experimentally. Experimental results are in satisfactory agreement with the theoretical model.

This paper describes an experiment with two touching rotating disks, whose movement is followed by video analysis. Within the disks' movements, there are intervals with sliding and intervals without sliding, that is, intervals with frictional forces between the touching surfaces and intervals without it. This system configuration allows for…

The demand for improving student interest in science has increased efforts toward teaching Einstein's theory of general relativity in schools. Research has already shown that teaching Einsteinian gravity at the secondary level is feasible, however, appropriate resources must be readily available for science teachers to make Einsteinian gravity…

Flow cytometry has become an important tool in the fields of veterinary, medicine, and biological sciences in general. However, in the introductory and even in advanced university degree courses, students do not have many opportunities to be in contact with this type of technology. This situation motivated us to design a simple and inexpensive…

This article first put forward the educational application of immersive virtual laboratories for the problems of poor spatial thinking ability and weak hands-on operation ability. Second, aiming at the problems of a lack of excellent backbone teachers and insufficient educational information equipment, a Tibetan-Chinese bilingual immersion virtual…

Providing safe access to functional field experiences during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic was a distinct challenge. However, these experiences are critical to train students in ecological methods and provide an opportunity for open-ended, authentic research. Here, we report on a multiweek lab designed for an introductory ecology…

Both graph comprehension and data analysis and interpretation are influenced by one's prior knowledge and experiences. To understand how one's prior knowledge and experiences interact with their analysis of a graph, we conducted think-aloud interviews with general chemistry students as they interpreted a graph to determine optimal conditions for…

We present an integrative mixed-methods systematic review of research on laboratory work in secondary-school science education from 1996 to 2019. The aim of the study is to identify important aspects of how to successfully make use of laboratory work as a science-teaching strategy in secondary schools. By engaging teachers, our study uses a…

Specifications grading is a relatively recent approach to assessing student learning. In this approach, students make progress toward completion of a course by demonstrating mastery of specific skills or material. The assessment tools are short, frequent exercises that can be attempted multiple times until mastered. This contrasts with the…

The traditional format for neuroanatomy lab practical exams involves stations with a time limit for each station and inability to revisit stations. Timed exams have been associated with anxiety, which can lead to poor performance. In alignment with the universal design for learning (UDL), "Timed Image Question" and "Untimed Image…

Many high school students learn about nutrient cycling during biology, environmental science, and agriculture classes. These lessons often focus on soil and plants, and nutrient cycling is usually taught independently from climate change. Scientists know that animals, including fish, can have strong effects on nutrient cycling (i.e., nitrogen and…

This study investigates the effectiveness of using a REACT strategy instruction enriched with guided inquiry-based experiments to improve 7th-grade students' understanding of mixtures compared to conventional teacher-centered instruction. A convergent parallel mixed-method design was used, and 39 middle school students were divided into…

The Next Generation Science Standards encourage students to develop the reasoning and practice skills of scientists. Rather than promoting rote memorization, teachers engage students with real-world phenomena and prompt students to think critically. ChemVLab+ is a series of freely available, online modules that require students to reason like…