Academic programs generally work to make their laboratory curriculum both as instrumentation rich and up to date as possible. However, little is known about the relationship between the use of instrumentation in the curriculum and student learning. As part of our department's ongoing assessment efforts, a project was designed to probe this…

The present study has two aims. Firstly, it aims to determine eighth grade students' conceptual understanding of floating and sinking through formative assessment probes. Secondly, it aims to determine whether or not there is a significant difference between students' performance in formative assessment probes and their achievement in the…

At present, quality earth science education in grade school is rare, increasing the importance of post-secondary courses. Observations of post-secondary geoscience indicate students often maintain errant ideas about the earth, even after direct instruction. This qualitative case study documents model-building activities of students as they…

Here we describe the incorporation of a web-based application focusing on circuits for the physics high school classroom as part of an outreach program. The program involves college mentors creating and implementing science lessons in collaboration with the classroom teacher. Focusing on the challenge of understanding circuit design, a technology…

The present study has two aims. Firstly, it aims to determine eighth grade students' conceptual understanding of floating and sinking through formative assessment probes. Secondly, it aims to determine whether or not there is a significant difference between students' performance in formative assessment probes and their achievement in the…

Understanding key concepts in molecular biology requires reasoning about molecular processes that are not directly observable and, as such, presents a challenge to students and teachers. We ask whether novel interactive physical models and activities can help students understand key processes in viral replication. Our 3D tangible models are…

(Purpose) The purpose of this paper is to describe visual literacy, an adapted version of Visual Thinking Strategy (VTS), and an art-integrated middle school mathematics lesson about scientific notation. The intent of this lesson was to provide students with a real life use of scientific notation and exponents, and to motivate them to apply their…

The middle school years are a crucial time when girls' science interest and participation decrease (Barton, Tan, O'Neill, Bautista-Guerra, & Brecklin, 2013). The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of middle school girls and their teacher in an eighth grade place-based education (PBE) science classroom. PBE strives to increase…

Virtual worlds are used in many educational and business applications. At the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at Rochester Institute of Technology (NTID/RIT), deaf college students are introduced to the virtual world of Second Life, which is a 3-D immersive, interactive environment, accessed through computer software. NTID students use…

There are important research issues surrounding the best methods for evaluating creativity of animation. This study proposed an approach to evaluate the creativity of short animation by adopting Linkography. This article reported the results of two experiments performed to test this approach. In study 1, participants identified as impressive a set…

Climate change is one of the most pressing issues of the 21st Century. Mathematics is involved at every level of understanding climate change, including the description, prediction and communication of climate change. As a highly complex issue, climate change is an example of "post-normal" science -- it is urgent, complex and involves a…

The Wii Balance Board is a popular accessory to the wireless video system the Wii. In the past few years, the Wii Remote[TM] and Wii Balance Board accessories to the Wii have made their way into physics labs as sensors to measure force and acceleration. In most introductory physics courses, the forces experienced while on an elevator are discussed…

Terms to be familiar with before you start to solve the test: cell cycle, generation time, S-phase, cell culture synchronization, isotopic pulse-chase labeling, density labeling, equilibrium density-gradient centrifugation, buoyant density, rate-zonal centrifugation, nucleoside, nucleotide, kinase enzymes, polymerization of nucleic acids,…

What is friction? Like gravity, friction is a type of force. In simple terms, friction is, by and large, resistance to movement when two or more objects slide past one another. In this task young people are challenged to build a "buffer" to stop a moving ball using only a piece of ordinary A4 paper or a strip cut from it; that is,…

Prussian Blue (PB) is an excellent material as a sensor for electroinactive cations because of its electrochemical behavior and its zeolytic character. A simple 3-h laboratory designed for a quantitative analysis or an instrumental methods course is reported. This laboratory studies the transport of various cations into a PB-modified electrode…