A comprehensive teaching/learning chemical energy package was developed to overcome conceptual/experimental difficulties and time required for calculation of enthalpy changes. The package consists of five types of activities occuring in repeated cycles: group activities, laboratory experiments, inquiry questionnaires, teacher-led class…

Highlights activities, workshops, and lectures at the seventh Biennial Conference on Chemical Education held at Oklahoma State University (Stillwater) focusing on the current shift from principles and theories to applications in college and high school chemistry courses. (JN)

Presents a complete computer program demonstrating the relationship between volume/pressure for Boyle's Law, volume/temperature for Charles' Law, and volume/moles of gas for Avagadro's Law. The programing reinforces students' application of gas laws and equates a simulated moving piston to theoretical values derived using the ideal gas law.…

Lists commercially available audiovisual materials by subject area. Includes title, producer (addresses given), catalog number, format (film, filmstrip, cassette, slides), and prices. Subject areas include: elements; equilibrium; gases; laboratory techniques and experiments; general chemistry; introductory materials (including mathematics); and…

Explored was the relationship between performance and gender for junior- and senior-high students (N=108) on six Piagetian-type tasks developed to measure infralogical spatial groupings. Results indicated a significant relationship between performance and gender on four tasks, in which males outscored females. Implications for science teaching are…

Describes and evaluates innovative instructional methods for teaching photosynthesis at a correctional facility for high school boys. Use of the Visual Response System raises the level of activity and interaction in classrooms by providing each student with an overhead projector and feedback units. Also describes teacher materials and equipment.…

Reports results of a study that (1) assesses the nature of interracial interactions within a disadvantaged, inner-city high school, (2) identifies what factors predict these interactions, and (3) suggests what implications such interactions should have on school policies and strategies. (CS)

Presents two studies done to identify problems students have in understanding the concepts of Darwinian evolution and adaptation. Results indicated poor understanding of the concept of time accounted for misconceptions in both studies (humans destroyed dinosaurs), and that only about 50 percent of students used logical reasoning. (JN)

To provide an activity illustrating why they encounter conceptual difficulties in physics, students constructed a "world map" of physics which defines various "seas" and illustrates relationships between them. Salient features of this approach and physics concepts fostered are included. (JN)

Current information and research related to plant protein inhibitors of enzymes are reviewed, including potential uses of the inhibitors for medical treatment and for breeding plant varieties with greater resistance to insects. (DC)

Procedures for constructing an inexpensive, hands-on working model of DNA are provided, as well as suggestions for using the model in a high school or college biology class. (DC)

Some contentions of scientific creationism that conflict with accepted principles of geology (catastrophism, fossil records, earth's age, rock formation, second law of thermodynamics) are reviewed, demonstrating that these claims are based not on scientific research or reasonable conjecture but on Biblical references. (Author/DC)

Descriptions of equipment and procedures are provided for: (1) a detection system for mass-spring oscillations; (2) an economical holography table; (3) demonstration alternating-current circuit board; and (4) demonstration of damped oscillation using a set of magnets. (SK)

An instrument was developed to assess secondary school students' attitudes toward science using items based on Mead and Metraux's 1957 study. Instrument reliability (0.76 in a pilot study and 0.86 in a study with 251 ninth-grade students) and construct validity are discussed. (JN)

Laboratory procedures, equipment, teaching ideas, and resource materials related to physics are discussed. Topics include the construction of a liquid-metal pump, a hydraulic jack, and an apparatus which helps teach time/velocity graphs; current/voltage characteristics of a tungsten filament lamp; and an electric circuit game. (DC)