Formative assessments serve to engage students in active sense-making, making them critical tools for both teachers and students. Though formative assessments may be an informal mode of assessing, they are one of the most important, especially when teaching science. As a subject, teaching science does not have the same kind of beginning-middle-end…

Understanding natural selection and adaptation are important precursors to learning evolution (NGSS Lead States 2013), the central unifying principle of biology. This lesson sequence, guided by the Five Practices Model (Cartier et al. 2013), incorporates data described by Andersson (1982) that details female choice in a population that eventually…

Science educators demonstrated that students' framings -- their expectations of what is going on -- influence how they participate, and what science knowledge they reveal, in clinical interviews. This paper complements research that explores how interviewers are likely to affect student framings, by exploring how subtler interactions can lead…

While many studies have examined the structure, validity, and reliability of the Force Concept Inventory, far less research has been performed on other conceptual instruments in widespread use in physics education research. This study performs a confirmatory analysis of the Conceptual Survey of Electricity and Magnetism (CSEM) guided by a…

This work proposes simple experiments to introduce some fundamental concepts of the measurement area. It associates theory and practice through a strategy where the students create a real temperature data set with an Arduino board and three LM35DZ sensors and later use mathematical software to identify theoretical concepts as measurement accuracy…

The CRISPR/Cas9 system is a powerful tool for gene editing and it has become increasingly important for biology students to understand this emerging technique. Most CRISPR laboratory teaching modules use complex metazoan systems or mammalian cell culture which can be expensive. Here, we present a lab module that engages students in learning the…

Module analysis for multiple-choice responses (MAMCR) was applied to a large sample of Force Concept Inventory (FCI) pretest and post-test responses (N[subscript pre] = 4509 and N[subscript post] = 4716) to replicate the results of the original MAMCR study and to understand the origins of the gender differences reported in a previous study of this…

Cultivating students' scientific knowledge and developing their capability in scientific inquiry depends on a teacher's ability to use existing resources to design rich learning opportunities. Designing such experiences is not easy, and is particularly challenging for new teachers who have little experience making decisions about the best way to…

Research into early childhood children's understandings in science has a long history. However, few studies have drawn upon cultural-historical theory to frame their research. Mostly, what is known has come from studies which have examined individual understandings of science concepts, without reference to culture, context or the collective nature…

The Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reaction, which is one of the most important methods for C-C bond formation in modern organic synthesis, exhibits broad functional group compatibility. A Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling protocol is reported that is suitable for demonstrating this compatibility in undergraduate laboratories. In this reaction, two…

The synthesis of substituted 1,4-benzoquinones, a biologically important class of compounds, was developed using [mu]-oxodi(phenyliodanyl) diacetate, a (diacetoxyiodo)benzene-based oxidizing reagent, in order to introduce second-year undergraduate organic laboratory students in their second semester or advanced organic students to increasingly…

Quantum dots (QDs) are considered useful for demonstrating quantum phenomena in undergraduate laboratories due to their monodisperse size and excellent optical properties. Although doping has an increasingly important role in QD fabrication in the semiconductor field, it has rarely been discussed in the context of the undergraduate laboratory. In…

Experience and intuition may help explain everyday phenomena. However, physics concepts cannot be induced directly from them. Learning physics requires an examination of the ideas of scientifically constructed theoretical frameworks, explaining coherently organized physics concepts. This research examined student teachers' physics knowledge in…

Myocardial contraction is triggered whenever a wave of electrical impulses passes through the heart. The pattern of electrical excitation spreads coordinately over the structure of the heart. This results in a measurable change in potential across the surface of the body of a subject. The recording of the resultant signal from specific body points…

Gravitational lensing is an interesting phenomenon in astronomy and is most typically given rise to by galaxies. The majority of the matter in a galaxy is thought to be dark matter, and the galactic gravitational lensing effect is mainly caused by dark matter halos. In gravitational lensing-related demonstrations in physics education, the feet of…