Crystals are beautiful structures--yet they occur naturally in dirty and remote places. In the inquiry-based activity described here, students will enjoy the process of creating their own crystals and using microscopes to examine them. It demonstrates the process of mineral concentration and deposition. Upon completing this activity, students…

One of the difficulties in teaching basic molecular biology concepts to the students with little biological background is the lack of hands-on exercises that combines the challenges of the concepts with visualization and immediate feedback. BIOPS Interactive is a web-based interactive learning environment for molecular biology that complements…

The late 20th century and beginning of 21st century have witnessed unprecedented rapid economic development due to advances in technology and globalization. In response to this development, a renewed call for science literacy has become louder in the USA and many other countries. Common to all science education reforms around the world is emphasis…

This article reports on an investigation into the different ways that pupils interact with technological artefacts. The results are discussed in the context of the need for first-year "introduction to engineering" courses to develop ways to provide students with an environment that facilitates their meaningful interaction with…

Little change has been noted over 10 years of research into teacher knowledge and confidence to teach science in the early and primary years of schooling. There is a significant body of research demonstrating that early childhood and primary teachers lack confidence and competence in teaching science. However, much of this research blames the…

We may assume that high school students are too "old" to enjoy simple, juvenile reading. But reading these simple books with students not only captures their attention, but also allows them to focus on larger science concepts and can introduce them to new science content (Madrazo 1997; Cerullo 1997). Reading juvenile science books aloud…

When describing activities in today's K-12 science classrooms, the word inquiry often causes some confusion. As a result, many of us find ourselves asking the same questions: How do we know when inquiry is authentic? What should happen in an inquiry-centered science classroom? What is the teacher's role in an inquiry-centered class and what is the…

Bringing a greater number of students into science is one of, if not the most fundamental goals of science education for "all", especially for heretofore-neglected groups of society such as women and Aboriginal students. Providing students with opportunities to experience how science really is enacted--i.e., "authentic science"--has been advocated…

Guided-inquiry experiments offer the same opportunities to participate in the process of science as classical organic qualitative analysis used to do. This three-week guided-inquiry project involves an aldol-dehydration synthesis of a chalcone chosen from a set of nine, followed by a catalytic transfer hydrogenation reaction using ammonium formate…

In the exciting, "out of this world" activity described here, students measure the Earth using meter sticks while measuring their shadows in two distant locations. To obtain the size of the Earth, students discover the connection between the measurements of the shadows and a model of the spherical Earth following the method developed by…

Bacteriocins, bacteriocidal proteins produced by bacteria, have a very restricted killing range. In this exercise each student isolates an environmental "Enterococcus spp." culture using selective media and then evaluates it for bacteriocin activity against "Enterococcus" strains isolated by classmates.

The space shuttle Endeavour, slated to begin an 11-day mission August 7, will carry an educational payload that includes two "growth chambers" loaded with basil and lettuce seeds, and a list of activities to be led by teacher-turned-astronaut Barbara R. Morgan. The activities targeted to K-12 students are add-ons to the shuttle crew's primary…

The underlying goal of the International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition, known as iGEM, is to figure out whether biological organisms and devices can be built from a collection of standard, off-the-shelf parts, just as someone might build a kit plane or car. For the undergraduates, it's an opportunity to construct whatever creature…

The analysis explains the basis set superposition error (BSSE) and fragment relaxation involved in calculating the interaction energies using various first principle theories. Interacting the correlated fragment and increasing the size of the basis set can help in decreasing the BSSE to a great extent.

New methodologies for determining the pressure inside an unopened carbonated beverage are presented. Such investigations also help the students to think deeply about a subject, giving them better understanding.