Given the important role that anatomical dissection plays in the shaping of medical student attitudes to life and death, these attitudes have not been evaluated in the context of whole body donation for medical science. First year students of anatomy in an Irish university medical school were surveyed by questionnaire before and after the initial…

For teachers, a common difficulty when introducing scientific thinking is finding ways to engage the participation of the students. Because most scientific problems require at least some specialized knowledge to formulate and solve, it can be hard to go beyond merely discussing the steps of the scientific method and illustrating them with the…

A central theme of the "National Science Education Standards" is teaching science as an inquiry process, allowing students to explore an authentic problem using the tools and skills of the discipline. Research indicates that more active participation by the student, which usually requires higher-order thinking skills, results in deeper learning.…

The lack of resolution in the on-going animal dissection debate inspired this mixed methods study to identify Connecticut secondary biology teachers' dissection practices and the influences that lead to their adoption. Qualitative findings indicate past experiences, managing objections to dissection, school culture, goals of biology teaching and…

Radiocarbon dating has been central to the construction of archaeological chronologies for over 50 years. The archaeological, scientific and (increasingly) statistical methods for interpreting radiocarbon measurements to produce these chronologies have become ever more sophisticated. The accurate measurement of the radiocarbon content of an…

Gerald Rutherford (1964), one of the original authors of the Harvard Project Physics course which emphasized the history of science, expressed a view of inquiry which advocated the historical re-constructions of significant experiments. To implement this view we examine two modes of historical re-constructions; Heering's ("Paper…

In recent years a number of multivariate approaches have been introduced to map neural systems in health and disease. In this review, we focus on spatial covariance methods applied to functional imaging data to identify patterns of regional activity associated with behavior. In the rest state, this form of network analysis can be used to detect…

We present a laboratory procedure, suitable for high school and undergraduate students, for preparing and studying propane clathrate hydrate. Because of their gas storage potential and large natural deposits, gas clathrate hydrates may have economic importance both as an energy source and a transportation medium. Similar to pure ice, the gas…

A trend in medical schools across the United States is the refurbishing of histology laboratories with digital microscopy systems. Although such systems may reduce curricular time, they do not teach basic microscope skills, and students who learn solely with these systems may be less prepared for their practices or specialties, particularly in…

This experiment teaches students the methodology of investigating novel properties of materials using new instrumental techniques: atomic force microscopy (AFM), electrochemical quartz crystal nanobalance (EQCN), voltammetric techniques (linear potential scan and chronoamperometry), and light reflectance measurements. The unique capabilities of…

The aim of this experiment is to study and calculate the kinetic constant of a Heck reaction: the arylation of but-3-en-2-ol by iodobenzene catalyzed by palladium acetate in presence of triethylamine in DMF. The reaction leads to a mixture of two ketones. Students use GC analysis to quantify reagents and products of reaction. They control the…