In this laboratory module, introductory biochemistry students are exposed to two-dimensional [superscript 1]H-nuclear magnetic resonance of glycerophospholipids (GPLs). Working in groups of three, students enzymatically synthesized and purified a variety of 2-acyl lyso GPLs. The structure of the 2-acyl lyso GPL was verified using [superscript…

Laptops are commonplace in university classrooms. In light of cognitive psychology theory on costs associated with multitasking, we examined the effects of in-class laptop use on student learning in a simulated classroom. We found that participants who multitasked on a laptop during a lecture scored lower on a test compared to those who did not…

Student outcomes in online courses trail considerably behind those in face-to-face courses. In order to gain insight into why this might be, the Community College Research Center (CCRC) undertook a series of studies that examined 23 high-demand, entry-level online courses at two community colleges in one state. CCRC researchers observed the online…

Creativity is an important criterion for evaluating conceptual and design abilities of architects and their praxis. However, in recent years, the world has grown more complex. New problems have emerged that are often outside the architect's capacity. Given this challenge, architects collaborate with colleagues from architecture and other related…

This study introduces a co-twin control method commonly used in the medical literature but not often within educational research. This method allows for a comparison of twins discordant for an "exposure," approximating alternative outcomes in the counterfactual model. Example analyses use data drawn from the Florida Twin Project on…

Although previous studies have attempted to use different experiences of raters to rate product creativity by adopting the Consensus Assessment Method (CAT) approach, the validity of replacing CAT with another measurement tool has not been adequately tested. This study aimed to compare raters with different levels of experience (expert ves.…

Young children are frequently exposed to sounds such as speech and music in noisy listening conditions, which have the potential to disrupt their learning. Missing input that is masked by louder sounds can, under the right conditions, be "filled in" by the perceptual system using a process known as perceptual restoration. This experiment…

A series of experiments for undergraduate courses (e.g., organic, physical) have been developed in the area of small molecule organic materials. These experiments focus on understanding the electronic and redox properties of a donor-acceptor molecule that is prepared in a convenient one-step microscale reaction. The resulting intensely colored…

The foreign language vocabulary learning research literature often attributes strong mnemonic potency to the cognitive processing of meaning when learning words. Routinely cited as support for this idea are experiments by Craik and Tulving (C&T) demonstrating superior recognition and recall of studied words following semantic tasks ("deep"…

Language development is frequently characterized as a process where learning proceeds implicitly, that is, incidentally and in absence of awareness of what was learned. This article reports the results of two experiments that investigated whether second language acquisition can also result in implicit knowledge. Adult learners were trained on an…

Measurements have been added to an old demonstration of chemical equilibria allowing the determination of thermodynamic constants. The experiment allows the students an opportunity to merge qualitative observations associated with Le Chatelier's principle and thermodynamic calculations using graphical techniques. (Contains 4 figures.)

Two experiments investigated the relationship between subjective interpretation of frequency terms and corresponding objective values. Evidence supported the existence of a nonlinear relationship that is well described by a logarithmic function. The general form of this relationship was consistent across different methods of eliciting subjective…

A novel S[subscript N]1-S[subscript N]2 studio-based lab module that incorporates inquiry-based learning was designed and implemented. The studio module was taught in a newly renovated lab space designed with an integrated classroom. The students were divided into two groups for the lesson with one group conducting a studio-module lab and the…

Combining regulatory focus theory (Higgins, 1997) and novelty categorization theory (Forster, Marguc, & Gillebaart, 2010), we predicted that novel stimuli would be more positively evaluated when focused on growth as compared with security and that familiar stimuli would be more negatively evaluated when focused on growth as compared with security.…

This year the world commemorates the beginning of the tragic USPHS syphilis experiments that occurred in Tuskegee, Alabama from 1932 to 1972. In light of this sobering anniversary, this article will briefly examine four studies: the already mentioned USPHS syphilis studies in Tuskegee, the Nazi Holocaust Experiments and the resulting Doctors'…