With archaeologists continually finding new pieces of the past, students will undoubtedly see and hear of new discoveries in the media. By using archaeology as a context for investigating past cultures and using science methods, teachers can capitalize on students' interests while still addressing concepts recommended (or required) for their…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of retroactive and focused self-monitoring, actualized by videotaping, on children's theater performance. In Experiment 1, 20 students in a theater performance program were randomly assigned to either a control or a self-monitoring condition, and their weekly rehearsals were videotaped. Only…

A computational experiment is described for the organic chemistry laboratory that allows students to estimate the relative strengths of the intramolecular hydrogen bonds of usnic and isousnic acids, two related lichen secondary metabolites. Students first extract and purify usnic acid from common lichens and obtain [superscript 1]H NMR and IR…

Research is described concerning the effectiveness of inquiry-based laboratory environments created in US mathematics/science education programme courses. Laboratory projects were conducted using a framework that allowed pre-service teachers to explore, analyse, and communicate "investigable" realms of physical phenomena. Goals were for…

In this paper, we demonstrate that rapid cycling "Brassica rapa" (Wisconsin Fast Plants) can be used in inquiry-based, student ecological fieldwork. We are the first to describe age-specific survival for field-grown Fast Plants and identify life history traits associated with individual survival. This experiment can be adapted by educators as a…

Qualitative analysis schemes are used in undergraduate laboratory settings as a way to introduce equilibrium concepts and logical thinking. The main component of all qualitative analysis schemes is a flame test, as the color of light emitted from certain elements is distinctive and a flame photometer or spectrophotometer in each laboratory is…

Documenting treatment integrity is an important issue in research and practice in any discipline concerned with prevention and intervention. However, consensus concerning the dimensions of treatment integrity and how they should be measured has yet to emerge. Advances from three areas in which significant treatment integrity work has taken…

The purpose of this study is to first develop an 8-week college teaching module based on root competition literature. The split-root technique is adapted for the teaching laboratory, and the Sugar Ann English pea (Pisum sativum var. Sugar Ann English) is selected as the species of interest prior to designing experiments, either original or…

The Environmental Inquiry program supports inquiry based, student-centered science teaching on selected topics in the environmental sciences. Many teachers are unfamiliar with both the underlying science of toxicology, and the process and importance of peer review in scientific method. The protocol and peer review process was tested with college…

This work describes a framework that combines techniques from Adaptive Hypermedia and Natural Language processing in order to create, in a fully automated way, on-line information systems from linear texts in electronic format, such as textbooks. The process is divided into two steps: an "off-line" processing step, which analyses the source text,…

The laboratory-learning environment needs to become more exploratory and undergo a transformation from its traditional confirmatory role in the learning of science. This is necessary to effectively allow students to achieve scientific literacy. The availability of powerful tools for data collection and analysis provides an opportunity for students…

It seems hard to believe that Dolly the cloned sheep was born 10 years ago, kindling furious arguments over the prospects and ethics of cloning a human. Today, the controversy over cloning is entwined, often confused, with concerns over the use of human embryonic stem cells. Most people are unclear what cloning is, and they know even less when it…

This study presents an application of a measure of learner involvement developed by Paas, Tuovinen, van Merrienboer, and Darabi (2005). These authors combined learners' performance scores with their perceived mental effort invested in instruction and used it to assess learner involvement in instructional conditions. The present study examines the…

Today, undergraduate students enter college with increasingly more sophisticated computer skills compared to their counterparts of 20 years ago. However, many instructors are still using traditional instructional strategies to teach this new generation. This research study discusses a number of strategies that were employed to teach a…

This paper draws on earlier work on ideas that underpin the collection and use of evidence in science in schools. It establishes that different types of practical work share the same procedural underpinnings. It then takes the work of Toulmin on argumentation to suggest that the idea of the "public claim" can be used to forge a link…