We report a study of three prospective secondary science teachers' development of theories-in-action as they worked together in a group to explore collisions using both physical manipulatives and a computer simulation (Interactive Physics). Analysis of their investigations using an existing theoretical framework indicates that, as the group moved…

Two-level data sets are frequently encountered in social and behavioral science research. They arise when observations are drawn from a known hierarchical structure, as when individuals are randomly drawn from groups that are randomly drawn from a target population. When the covariance structures in the group level and the individual level are the…

Constructively promoting the educational development of today's young tech savvy students and fostering the productive technological facility of tomorrow's youth requires harnessing new technological tools creatively. The MIT Teacher Education Program (TEP) focuses on the research and development of educational computer-based simulations and games…

As a science subject leader and year 6 teacher in North Bristol, the author has spent the last few months exploring how an interactive whiteboard (IWB) can be used to teach science skills, particularly those that are repeatedly highlighted as problematic, such as analysis and evaluation of evidence. The IWB came with software called…

This paper describes how information and communication technology (ICT) is used in the modular Open University course "T209 Information and Communication Technologies: People and Interactions", first presented in 2002. In this course ICT is used to provide students with practical experience and to support an active and collaborative approach to…

This paper is part of an investigation into 11-year-old students' interpretations of events in the environment. In particular, we analyse the use of a scale model constructed and manipulated by students when simulating a forest fire. We consider that their explanations involve the interrelation of three levels of organisation: the level at which…

There is an increasing need for business students to be taught the ability to think through ethical dilemmas faced by corporations conducting business on a global scale. This article describes a multiplayer online simulation game, ISLAND TELECOM, that exposes students to ethical dilemmas in international business. Through role playing and…

This study focuses on the various playful uses of language that occurred during a semester-long study of two German language courses using one type of synchronous network-based medium, the MOO. Research and use of synchronous computer-mediated communication (CMC) have flourished in the study of second-language acquisition (SLA) since the late…

The IMMEX (Interactive Multi-Media Exercises) Web-based problem set platform enables the online delivery of complex, multimedia simulations, the rapid collection of student performance data, and has already been used in several genetic simulations. The next step is the use of these data to understand and improve student learning in a formative…

In a very large Introductory Statistics class, i.e. in a class of more than 300 students, instructors may hesitate to apply active learning techniques, discouraged by the volume of extra work. In this paper two such activities are presented that evoke student involvement in the learning process. The first is group peer teaching and the second is…

Our primary goal is to design a micro world which aspires to research thinking-in-change about distribution. Our premise, in line with a constructivist approach and our prior research, is that thinking about distribution must develop from causal meanings already established. This study reports on a design research study of how students appear to…

Human sexuality is a significant issue for educators to understand and teach about, and for young people to learn about. The development of interactive multimedia technologies has added a range of new dimensions associated with designing pedagogies for sex education on Interactive Multimedia (IMM). Here, a module on CD-Rom on Sexuality and Human…

This article describes a simple and inexpensive hands-on simulation of protein folding suitable for use in large lecture classes. This activity uses a minimum of parts, tools, and skill to simulate some of the fundamental principles of protein folding. The major concepts targeted are that proteins begin as linear polypeptides and fold to…

A new, simple classroom technique helps cell biology students understand principles of Michaelis-Menten enzyme kinetics. A student mimics the enzyme and the student's hand represents the enzyme's active site. The catalytic event is the transfer of marbles (substrate molecules) by hand from one plastic container to another. As predicted, increases…

Kinetic models of a gas can be hard for students to understand. Typical tools do not display events at the microscopic level, yet computer simulations of the molecules lack a hands-on aspect. Here a new tool is described that combines the squeezing of a syringe with a computer simulation, and it is shown that this has worked well in class for both…