The fundamentals of classical mechanics are the foundation of more complicated and ingenious physical theories. Therefore, an educational experiment revealing to students the physical nature of mechanical phenomena is important. The effectiveness of this experiment manifoldly increases if students not only perform it by themselves, but also make…

This study was done to develop a simple and inexpensive wave driver that can be used in experiments on string waves. The wave driver was made using a battery-operated toy car, and the apparatus can be used to produce string waves at a fixed frequency. The working principle of the apparatus is as follows: shortly after the car is turned on, the…

Solubility is frequently introduced at the high school and introductory college levels through the symbolic domain using net ionic equations and solubility product constants. Students may become proficient with spectator ion cancellation and skilled with algorithmic mathematical applications of solubility without obtaining a deeper understanding…

In this article, the author describes a chemistry gas experiment that she developed with the intent of integrating inquiry and Problem-Based Learning (PBL). The lab activity follows the principles of Ambitious Science Teaching (AST). Teachers (1) engage students with important science ideas, (2) elicit students' ideas while making visible what…

An astronomy "experiment" composed of three parts is described in the article. Being given necessary data a simple model of inner planets of the solar system is made in the first part with planets' circular orbits using appropriate scale. In the second part revolution of the figurines used as model representations of the planets along…

Inquiry-based approaches to science education are central to recent South African primary and secondary school curricula, but have been found challenging to adopt in disadvantaged township contexts. It is therefore important to find ways of introducing inquiry-based approaches, where pupils are encouraged to investigate phenomena they are…

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and other national frameworks are calling for much more sophisticated approaches to STEM education, centered around the integration of complex experimentation (including real labs, not just simulations), data collection and analysis, modeling, and data-driven argumentation, i.e., students can behave…

This paper reports on a study of teacher support in experimental computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) settings where students engage with graphs in real-time labs within the context of school science. Real-time labs are digital devices and software connected to student-controlled sensors or probes that can measure and visualize data…

We investigated physics students' epistemological views on measurements and validity of experimental results. The roles of experiments in physics have been underemphasized in previous research on students' personal epistemology, and there is a need for a broader view of personal epistemology that incorporates experiments. An epistemological…

Laboratories studying the anisotropic rotational diffusion of bromobenzene using nuclear spin relaxation and molecular dynamics simulations are described. For many undergraduates, visualizing molecular motion is challenging. Undergraduates rarely encounter laboratories that directly assess molecular motion, and so the concept remains an…

Recent years have seen a dramatic increase in our understanding of the social behaviour of microbes. Here, we take advantage of these developments to present an undergraduate laboratory exercise that uses the cooperative flocculating behaviour of yeast ("Saccharomyces sp.") to introduce the concept of inclusive fitness and teach the…

Artificial photosynthesis (AP) is a synthetic chemical process that replicates natural photosynthesis to mass produce hydrogen as a clean fuel from sunlight-driven water splitting (2H[subscript 2]O [right arrow] O[subscript 2] + H[subscript 2]). In both natural and artificial photosynthesis, an oxygen-evolving catalyst (OEC) is needed to catalyze…

NMR spectroscopy is currently a premier technique for structural elucidation of organic molecules. Quantitative NMR (qNMR) methodology has developed more slowly but is now widely accepted, especially in the areas of natural product and medicinal chemistry. However, many undergraduate students are not routinely exposed to this important concept.…

Despite widespread use in general chemistry laboratories, the crystal violet chemical kinetics experiment frequently suffers from erroneous student results. Student calculations for the reaction order in hydroxide often contain large asymmetric errors, pointing to the presence of systematic error. Through a combination of "in silico"…

In science classes, students usually learn about the law of definite proportions by the oxidation of copper. However, common procedures usually do not lead to proper results. This leads to confusion among the students because their experimental results do not fit to the theoretical values. Therefore, we invented a new procedure for this experiment…