Declarative concepts (i.e., key terms and corresponding definitions for abstract concepts) represent foundational knowledge that students learn in many content domains. Thus, investigating techniques to enhance concept learning is of critical importance. Various theoretical accounts support the expectation that example generation will serve this…

Information literacy is of paramount importance to any successful research program. Information techniques and skills should be infused throughout a student's undergraduate curriculum rather than being the focus of a single course. To this end, we have created several courses, beginning in the first year, where students review current scientific…

In this study, an instructional design model, based on the computational experiment approach, was employed in order to explore the effects of the formative assessment strategies and scientific abilities rubrics on students' engagement in the development of inquiry-based pedagogical scenario. In the following study, rubrics were used during the…

Transition metals play an important role in many biological processes, however, they are also toxic at high concentrations. Therefore, the uptake and efflux of these metals must be tightly regulated by the cell. Bacteria have evolved a variety of pathways and regulatory systems to monitor the presence and concentration of metals in the cellular…

Despite the fact that the cannabinoid receptor type 1 (CB1R) plays a pivotal role in emotional memory processing in different regions of the brain, its function in the retrosplenial cortex (RSC) remains unknown. Here, using contextual fear conditioning in rats, we showed that a post-training intra-RSC infusion of the CB1R antagonist AM251…

Gel filtration chromatography (GFC) separates molecules according to size and is one of the most widely used methods for protein purification. Here, red fluorescent protein (RFP), green fluorescent protein (GFP), yellow fluorescent protein (YFP), cyan fluorescent protein (CFP), and/or their fusion proteins were prokaryotically expressed, purified,…

Four experiments were designed to assess the presence and impact of stereotypical knowledge through an implicit measure of reading comprehension. In Experiments 1 and 3, participants read passages about protagonists in scenarios in which stereotypical knowledge was likely to become activated in memory. Following the descriptions, reading times for…

We present experiments giving new insights into the classical light-emitting pickle experiment. In particular, measurements of the spectra and temperatures, as well as high-speed recordings, reveal that light emission is connected to the polarity of the electrodes and the presence of hydrogen.

A fluorescence demonstration is described that incorporates several fundamental aspects of an introductory biochemistry course. A variation of a known leakage assay is utilized to prepare vesicles containing a quenched fluorophore. The vesicles are exposed to several osmotic environments ranging from isotonic to hypotonic. The degree of vesicle…

Kinetics is an important part of undergraduate environmental chemistry curricula and relevant laboratory exercises are helpful in assisting students to grasp concepts. Such exercises are also useful in general chemistry courses because students can see relevance to real-world issues. The laboratory exercise described here involves determination of…

The notion of bringing technology into the classroom has been the subject of many recent presentations at conferences and papers in physics teaching journals. The use of devices such as laptops, smartphones, tablets, and clickers is rising in today's classrooms and laboratories. PhET simulations have been available online for over a decade. A…

The "Production Effect" (PE) refers to a memory advantage for items studied aloud over items studied silently. Thus, vocalizing may serve as a mnemonic that can be used to assist learners in improving their memory for new concepts. Although many other types of mnemonic have been suggested in the literature, the PE seems especially…

Although science experiments are the basis of teaching science process skills (SPS), it has been observed that a large number of prospective primary teachers (PPTs), by virtue of their background, feel anxious about doing science experiments. To overcome this problem, a proposal was suggested for primary school teachers (PSTs) to teach science and…

In the present study, a preparation of frog skin was presented, which can be used to demonstrate the basic concepts of blood flow regulation in a very clear and attractive way to high school and university students. In a freshly euthanized "Xenopus," a patch of abdominal skin was exposed from the internal side and viewed with a USB…

This research investigates the role of virtual experiments and worked examples in the learning of the control of variable strategy (CVS). Sixty-nine seventh-grade students participated in this study over a span of 6 weeks and were engaged in worked example learning and/or virtual experimentation to study the knowledge and procedures associated…