Research experiences are widely understood to be valuable for the intellectual and professional development of undergraduate science students. Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) have become popular as a means of engaging large numbers of students in research by leveraging institutional supports for laboratory courses. At…

Earth's easily seen surface features (mountains, volcanoes, and islands)--and the movement of the tectonic plates that lie below--offer hints about the processes that produced them. Inquiries in seismology, the study of earthquakes and other ground movements, can help students learn about Earth's geologic processes. This article describes an…

A laboratory experiment was designed for undergraduate students, in which the outcome of an easy single-step organic synthesis with well-defined conditions was not elucidated until the end of the exercise. In class, students predict and discuss the possible products using their knowledge of reaction mechanisms. In the laboratory, they learn how to…

The current National Curriculum for history requires pupils to "identify and investigate specific historical questions, making and testing hypotheses for themselves". While Kate Hammond relished the encouragement that this gave to her pupils to engage in the process of historical enquiry, she was keen to develop a much clearer sense of…

General education must develop in students an appreciation of the power of science, how it works, why it is an effective knowledge generation tool, and what it can deliver. Knowing what science has discovered is desirable but less important.

Oceantides are not typically high in our consciousness here in Missouri, but in teaching astronomy and physical science the subject always comes up, and teachers of physical science and astronomy are all quite familiar with the textbook explanations. Our goal here is not to explain tides but to make some suggestions about how, on their own,…

Explaining new ideas to oneself can promote transfer, but how and when such self-explanation is effective is unclear. This study evaluated whether self-explanation leads to lasting improvements in transfer success and whether it is more effective in combination with direct instruction or invention. Third- through fifth-grade children (ages 8-11;…

Discusses use of microcomputers for structuring, communicating, and disseminating information under the categories of instructional use (computer-assisted instruction), emancipation (number crunching), revelatory (discovery/simulation), and conjectural (hypothesis testing). Also discusses use of PROLOG language for modeling ecosystems and testing…

An 11th-grade interdisciplinary course combining English and American history examines United States history from the perspective of nine topics, rather than through the traditional, chronological-survey approach. Discovery learning and independent research are the focus of course method. At the start of the course, students are given nine…