A small group of high school students performed a virtual laboratory experiment in Second Life that mimicked a real experiment in both its appearance and procedure. Lab report grades were equivalent to report grades for hands-on experiments, and the quality of students' results was similar. Results of an attitudinal survey show that students…

In this study, relationship between prospective science and technology teachers' experiences in conducting Hands on physics experiments and their physics lab I achievement was investigated. Survey model was utilized and the study was carried out in the 2012 spring semester. Seven Hands on physics experiments were conducted with 28 prospective…

This article highlights what inquiry and design have in common, and what makes engineering design uniquely different from inquiry. A case study is presented that gives students practice in conducting fair-test experiments, in troubleshooting to learn how to make designs better, and in building science-based explanations for how things work. The…

It is generally accepted nowadays that History and Philosophy of Science (HPS) is useful in understanding scientific concepts, theories and even some experiments. Problem-solving strategies are a significant topic, since students' careers depend on their skill to solve problems. These are the reasons for addressing the question of whether problem…

In this study we present the structure and implementation of a model-based inquiry teaching-learning sequence (TLS) integrating expressive, experimental and exploratory modelling pedagogies in a cyclic manner, with the aim of enhancing primary education student teachers' epistemological beliefs about the aspects, nature, purpose and change of…

Pseudoscience is a ubiquitous aspect of popular culture which constitutes a direct challenge to science, and by association, to science education. With the exception of politically influential pseudosciences trying to impose themselves on official curricula such as creationism, science education authorities and professional organisations seem…

A simple and versatile approach to incorporating basic optical microscopy in the undergraduate instrumental analysis laboratory is described. Attaching a miniature CCD spectrometer to the video port of a standard compound microscope yields a visible microspectrophotometer suitable for student investigations of fundamental spectrometry concepts,…

Distillation is a ubiquitous technique in the undergraduate organic chemistry curriculum; the technique dates back to ca. 3500 B.C.E. With the emergence of green chemistry in the 1990s, the importance of emphasizing responsible waste management practices for future scientists is paramount. Combining the practice of distillation with the message…

With some simple metal samples and common household liquids, teachers can build wet cell batteries and use them to teach students about batteries and how they work. In this article, the author offers information that is derived from some simple experiments he conducted in his basement workshop and can easily be applied in the classroom or lab. He…

We discuss common features in mechanical, electromagnetic and quantum systems, supporting identical results for the transmission and reflection coefficients of waves arriving perpendicularly at a plane interface. Also, we briefly discuss the origin of special notions such as refractive index in quantum mechanics, massive photons in wave guides and…

Although nowadays there are mythbusting teams ready to empirically confirm or deny advertising claims that may seem too good to be true, it is often economically prohibitive to perform the kinds of experiments that are called for. It is therefore sometimes more sensible and efficacious to perform a thought experiment instead, especially if the…

Western blot analysis, commonly known as "Western blotting," is a standard tool in every laboratory where proteins are analyzed. It involves the separation of polypeptides in polyacrylamide gels followed by the electrophoretic transfer of the separated polypeptides onto a nitrocellulose or polyvinylidene fluoride membrane. A replica of the…

The scientific method is arguably the most reliable way to understand the physical world, yet this aspect of science is rarely addressed in introductory science courses. Students typically learn about the theory in its final, refined form, and seldom experience the experiment-to-theory cycle that goes into producing the theory. One exception to…

The ocean is home to some of Earth's most important producers. Single-celled organisms in the ocean are responsible for more than half of Earth's productivity, as well as most of its oxygen. Phytoplankton are single-celled, plantlike organisms. That is, they have chloroplasts and perform photosynthesis, but are not true plants, which are typically…

We described a simple idea for experimental verification of the uncertainty principle for light waves. We used a single-slit diffraction of a laser beam for measuring the angular width of zero-order diffraction maximum and obtained the corresponding wave number uncertainty. We will assume that the uncertainty in position is the slit width. For the…