Students' academic experiences can influence their conceptualization of science. In contrast experts hold particular beliefs, perceptions, opinions, and attitudes about science that are often absent in first-year undergraduate students. Shifts toward more expert-like attitudes and views have been linked to improved student engagement,…

Mechatronics is a multidisciplinary that includes a combination of mechanics, electronics, control systems, and computer science. The main objective of mechatronics learning is to establish a comprehensive mindset in the development of mechatronic systems. Project Based Learning (PBL) is an appropriate method for use in the learning process of…

The purpose of this research was to study the system of resources, the objectives of their use and the factors that affect the selection and integration of the different resources by Lebanese secondary physics teachers in their teaching in general and for teaching Electricity in particular. For this aim, a qualitative approach was used and the…

Experiments in different forms can certainly be suitable tools for increasing student interest in physics. However, educators continuously discuss which forms of experimenting (if any) are the most beneficial for these purposes. At the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Prague, two different forms of physics experiments are…

Written scientific communication, such as laboratory reports, are important components of undergraduate education within the sciences. Since most Horticultural Science majors offer lecture- and lab-based courses, students often write laboratory reports for many courses across the curriculum and these reports comprise a large percentage of the…

Objective: This study explored how high school and postsecondary academic parameters may relate to the choice of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) major for students beginning their postsecondary education at community colleges. Our study incorporated these two clusters of factors into a statistical model to examine STEM…

This article describes the competency-based approach to e-learning education that utilizes remote access to the laboratory equipment. The main focus of the paper is the structure and design of the e-learning system used in the Southern Federal University (Russia). The article discusses the related pedagogical strategies and presents system's…

A multiweek organic chemistry laboratory project is described that emphasizes sustainable practices in experimental design. An emphasis on student-driven development of the project is meant to mirror the independent nature of research. Students propose environmentally friendly modifications of several reactions. With instructor feedback, students…

Production of liquid fuels such as ethanol from fibrous plant biomass could potentially be a significant sustainable component of the U.S. energy portfolio. Engineers and scientists are actively researching this area, and high school students can engage in this contemporary inquiry process by experimenting with different types of biomass, varying…

Poly(phenylene vinylene) (PPV) represents an important class of conjugated, conducting polymers that have been readily exploited in the preparation of organic electronic materials. In this experiment, students prepare a PPV polymer via a facile multistep synthetic sequence with robust spectroscopic evaluation of synthetic intermediates and the…

Maxwell's discovery of the relation between electricity, magnetism, and light was one of the most important ones in physics. With his added displacement current term, Maxwell showed that the equations of electricity and magnetism produced a radiation solution, electromagnetic (EM) radiation, that traveled with a speed of c=1/v(e0µ0). The…

In this paper, I present a low-cost interactive experiment for measuring the strength of Earth's local magnetic field. This activity can be done in most high schools or two-year physics laboratories with limited resources, yet will have a tremendous learning impact. This experiment solidifies the three-dimensional nature of Earth's…

Communicating complex scientific and technical information presents a challenge for food science educators. The most efficient learning occurs when all senses are engaged, one reason that many educators believe that scientific principles are best taught with hands-on laboratory experiences. Today there are many challenges to the continuation of…

The National Science Education Standards (NSES) and the Biological Science Curriculum Study (BSCS) address the need for teachers to move classrooms toward an inquiry approach to learning. Currently, there is movement toward a new structure for science standards, the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). In this article, I will take the five…

3-D topographic surfaces ("topos") can be generated to visualize how pH behaves during titration and dilution procedures. The surfaces are constructed by plotting computed pH values above a composition grid with volume of base added in one direction and overall system dilution on the other. What emerge are surface features that…