This article describes the six regional instrumentation facilities established by the National Science Foundation. These centers make available to scientists state-of-the-art instrumentation such as: gas chromatographs; lasers; NMR spectrometers; X-rays; and others. (CS)

To help technically skilled deaf science students overcome their language limitations, an instructional module is described which uses cards displaying a laboratory report format along with grammar and style requirements. (CL)

The design, construction, and operation of a solid state electrometer is described. The instrument used the case and meter movement from an obsolete commercial pH meter. The cost of materials, purchased in 1977 in unit quantities, was $60. (BB)

Describes the construction of a thermostat of double-oven design that can maintain a stability of two mdeg for several hours and can accomodate sealed-glass ampoules at elevated temperatures. (MLH)

Describes a temperature control system that can be used with a double-oven thermostat to provide two mdeg regulation over several hours. (MLH)

Describes an inexpensive apparatus for packing liquid and gas chromatographic columns of high efficiency. Consists of stainless steel support struts, an Automat Getriebmotor, and an associated three-pulley system capable of 10, 30, and 300 rpm. (MLH)

Describes a safe, inexpensive hydrogen electrode and a zinc-air cell to illustrate the generation of electricity by means of an electrochemical cell. (MLH)

Describes the design of a new laboratory course that calls for experiments to be grouped in clusters. Each cluster has a unifying theme which gives coherence to the experiments. Other important guidelines in design were the use of computers, introduction of microscale chemistry, and use of instrumentation. Cluster examples include Carbon Is Number…

Describes a freshman laboratory program designed to interface between the substances that surround students in their ordinary lives and abstract principles presented in chemistry classrooms. Course organization is based on the nature of the materials themselves, which include household chemicals such as hydrogen peroxide, food and beverages, pills…

Explores the Competency Tripod model and flow diagrams as two sources for enabling students' metacognition in a second year undergraduate chemistry laboratory. Results indicate that all four students engaged in metacognitive practices, all believed that flow diagrams are extremely useful, and all understood the Competency Tripod model, but only…

Presents an activity to teach buoyancy. The lab determines what mass of sand can be added to the open end of hollow plastic containers of various shapes so that objects just float at the surface, without sinking, with their entire volume submerged. Discusses Archimedes' principle and aligns with current national science education standards.…

Critiques and advances an understanding for a method of establishing ethos-- promoting one's field by distinguishing it from work associated with women. Provides some reasons why this might have been important to women librarians and argues how this process applies to particular exigencies in the contemporary fields of library science and of…

Suggests that the ethical space of writing program administrator (WPA) work, the rhetorical, probable, and material space, includes an inescapable constraint, the unenforceability of rules. Presents and illustrates four themes in which to look at ethics and agency in WPA space: freedom and responsibility; enforceability and agency; "the horns of a…

Investigates which factors are important in revising chemistry laboratory experiments to enhance student interest and enjoyment of experimental science. Findings indicate the importance of several factors including varied content, real-world connections, items from outside the student's usual range of experience, well-paced experiments, error-free…

Describes a simple audio conductivity device built to address the problem of the lack of sensitivity needed to measure small differences in conductivity in crude conductivity devices. Uses a 9-V battery as a power supply and allows the relative resistance differences between substances to be detected by the frequency of its audible tones. Presents…