Median polishing, an exploratory data statistical analysis technique, was used to study achievement patterns for men and women on the Pharmacy College Admission Test over a six-year period. In general, a declining trend in scores was found, and males performed better than females, with the largest differences found in chemistry and biology.…

Presents activities that utilize piezoelectric film to familiarize students with fundamental principles of electricity. Describes classroom projects involving chemical sensors, microbalances, microphones, switches, infrared sensors, and power generation. (MDH)

This study examined the cognitive development of students enrolled in three levels of freshman chemistry courses and focused on changes in spatial ability over time. Results indicate that performance on general Piagetian-type tasks, including spatial visualization, can be refined through educational intervention. Concludes that students appear…

The development of valid and reliable instruments for attitudes' measurement has been proven crucial for the quality of research. This study is dealing with the development and validation of an attitude toward chemistry instrument. By using this instrument, 11th grade Greek students' attitudes regarding the difficulty, the interest, the usefulness…

Using a theoretical perspective of communities of practice, this case study examines a prospective chemistry teacher's inquiry-based teaching during his practicum. Conrad was a former student of an inquiry-oriented science course, "Inquiry Empowering Technologies" (IET). The research questions were (a) How did Conrad translate the IET inquiry…

The present study makes use of the capabilities of computerized environments to enable simultaneous display of molecular representations that correspond to observations at the macroscopic level. This study questions the immediate and long-term effects of using a multimedia instructional unit that integrates the macroscopic, symbolic, and molecular…

All artists are chemists. Artists understand and study the properties of specific materials and find ways to explore these properties to express views of themselves and the world around them. This article discusses the Artist as Chemist unit and presents how students link art and chemistry through problem-based learning activities. In this…

"Chemie im Kontext" (ChiK) is a project that aims at the improvement of chemistry teaching at secondary school in Germany. Based on a framework that was derived from theories and empirical data on the teaching and learning of science, science education researchers and teachers work together on learning communities to transform this…

This study investigated the chemistry laboratory classroom environment, teacher-student interactions and student attitudes towards chemistry among 497 gifted and non-gifted secondary-school students in Singapore. The data were collected using the 35-item Chemistry Laboratory Environment Inventory (CLEI), the 48-item Questionnaire on Teacher…

The design of a web-based course is discussed based upon considerations of content, pedagogy, learning styles, and assessment. The learning styles are examined as primary considerations and indeed dictate needed elements in a web-based course. Assessment is also considered in the initial planning of such a course. These design elements are…

We present results for a decade-long assessment program for an introductory course for non-science majors. This study focuses on student evaluation data and student-supplied information about sex, race, age, academic background, student study time, study habits, and course grade. The results reveal a statistically significant positive relationship…

The purpose of this article is to suggest ways of using research on children's reasoning and learning to elaborate on existing national standards and to improve large-scale and classroom assessments. The authors suggest that "learning progressions"--descriptions of successively more sophisticated ways of reasoning within a content domain based on…

The case study described in this paper investigates the relationship among some pre-instructional knowledge, the learning gain and the final physics performance of computing engineering students in the introductory physics course. The results of the entrance engineering test (EET) have been used as a measurement of reading comprehension, logic and…

Laboratory exercises constitute an important part of chemical and biochemical courses at the university level. Nevertheless, students frequently are insufficiently prepared for the practical work, which often reduces their work to the level of a technician. A system designed to motivate students to study prior to the laboratory exercise was…

This article uses student feedback to explore student attitudes towards the use of lecture breaks. The survey illustrates that undergraduates genuinely value such breaks, finding them educationally useful and enhancing their enjoyment of the lecture experience. By comparing and contrasting the perceived value of different types of lecture breaks,…