Carbohydrates, or in strictly chemical terms, polyhydroxy-aldehydes or ketones represent enormous structural diversity in terms of the arrangement of atoms in space, resulting in hundreds of stereoisomers. Although the chemical properties of most stereoisomers may not be very different, their metabolic fate and utilization in biological systems is…

When we travel in a train moving at a certain velocity, we observe the stationary objects outside are moving backwards. These stationary objects seem to move due to a relative velocity. Consider that the stationary object outside the train is a man standing on the stationary floor watching a woman moving on a train. The woman on a train will see…

A new device for teaching the physics of sound, specifically demonstrating the wavelengths of standing sound waves, is here described. I define a "Lincoln's Tube" as any hollow tube that uses lights (LEDs typically) to demonstrate the presence of sound standing waves. The name is chosen intentionally to recall a Ruben's Tube or a Kundt's…

Semiconductor devices, usually made from silicon wafers, are present in the electronic gadgets that we use on a daily basis. In an introductory physics class, the textbook usually devotes a few pages to these devices and moves on. As a result, students may readily forget the material or fail to see how it relates to their lives. A solution is to…

The purpose of this note is to describe the mathematics that emanates from the construction of an origami box. We first construct a simple origami box from two rectangular sheets and then discuss some of the mathematical questions that arise in the context of geometry and algebra.

In this commentary, the authors suggest that a paramount job for adolescent literacy assessment is to create more equitable outcomes for all students. The authors propose that the use of learning scales and micro-progressions fills a void and demonstrate how their use can provide better information to teachers and yield information that can…

Reality TV -- or certain design-oriented TV shows -- may be better known for their focus on competition, but what we actually see when we look more closely are models of collaboration and assessment that can illuminate important principles of classroom learning. Erin Furtak reflects on the ways that three of these shows -- The Great British Baking…

Every time we join an organization, we go through the socialization process, which is often not as explicit as we might like. Although organizations often provide handbooks for role-related information, there is no such formal structure for cultural information. In order to understand the socialization process and the value it has for both the…

University students in other disciplines without prior knowledge in statistics and/or programming language are introduced to the statistical method of decision trees in the programming language R during a 45-minute teaching and practice session. Statistics and programming skills are now frequently required within a wide variety of research fields…

Many students enter upper grades unprepared to make decisions and take charge of their work, especially with writing assignments and organizing their thinking in any written piece. With good intention, many teachers make lots of decisions for students on organization and development a piece of writing. Gallagher and Kittle share how they let…

Critical literacy requires that readers have both the ability and the deliberate inclination to think critically about texts of all types, meaningfully question their origin and purpose, and take action. Response to reading from a critical stance has typically been limited to discussion but has recently expanded to include other modes of response.…

This note is about 1000 words in length. We have been taught that this much information is contained in a single picture. But, Fig. 1 is so rich that four separate ideas can be obtained from it! The figure appears in "The Boy's Playbook of Science" by John Henry Pepper. Pepper tells us that this shows an "assistant standing on the…

COVID-19 presents assessment professionals with an opportunity to reexamine preexisting inequities for vulnerable student groups that may be more susceptible to the pandemic's economic impacts. We propose that assessment professionals incorporate student interviews more intentionally in their work so they and their stakeholders can develop more…

The purpose of the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) is to investigate the changing ways in which young people are prepared to undertake their roles as citizens across a wide range of countries. This assessment framework provides a conceptual underpinning for the international instrumentation for ICCS 2022. It needs to…

The advent of Generative AI technologies, such as ChatGPT, in November 2022, necessitated immediate and critical attention from the educational research community. The impact of GenAI in education, though not yet clear, has the potential to be transformative. More specifically, the focus of this paper is on how to integrate GenAI into elementary…