Phagocytosis and exocytosis are two cellular processes involving membrane dynamics. While it is easy to understand the purpose of these processes, it can be extremely difficult for students to comprehend the actual mechanisms. As membrane dynamics play a significant role in many cellular processes ranging from cell signaling to cell division to…

Prereading questions can be an effective tool for directing students' learning. However, it is not always clear what the online effects of a set of prereading questions will be. In two experiments, this study investigated whether readers direct additional attention to and learn more from sentences that are potentially relevant to a set of…

A required writing mechanics course for mass communication students was moved online. A case study experiment manipulating the course design was conducted to determine effects on student engagement, learning, and satisfaction. Online designs with greater interactivity capabilities are positively associated with all three outcomes. These desirable…

This article presents a design experiment in which we explore new structures for classroom collaboration supported by a classroom network of handheld graphing calculators. We describe a design for small group investigations of linear functions and present findings from its implementation in three high school algebra classrooms. Our coding of the…

An evaluation of the educational effectiveness of a didactic method for the active learning of greedy algorithms is presented. The didactic method sets students structured-inquiry challenges to be addressed with a specific experimental method, supported by the interactive system GreedEx. This didactic method has been refined over several years of…

This paper discusses the design and implementation of laboratories and course projects using LabVIEW in an instrumentation course. The pedagogical challenge is to enhance students' learning of digital communication using LabVIEW. LabVIEW was extensively used in the laboratory sessions, which better prepared students for the course projects. Two…

Imagine two fourth-grade classes. Both contain students of comparable demographics and highly respected teachers each with four to five years of experience. Both classes engage in science curricula that emphasize science and engineering practices as outlined in the "Next Generation Science Standards" (NGSS Lead States 2013). Both classes…

The objective of this paper is to discuss aspects of high school students' learning of probability in a context where they are supported by the statistical software R. We report on the application of a teaching experiment, constructed using the perspective of Gal's probabilistic literacy and Papert's constructionism. The results show improvement…

This study examines the implementation of teaching strategies by graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) in inquiry-based introductory geology labs at a large research university. We assess the degree of inquiry present in each Physical Geology lab and compare and contrast the instructional practices of new and experienced GTAs teaching these labs. We…

This article presents rationale for an enhanced inquiry approach to science education that authentically integrates content knowledge and application skills in a middle school science curriculum. Such pedagogy ensures students' attainment of national and state standards for learning science and multiple literacies (e.g. language arts and…

The author provides a general model to incentivize student involvement in an economics course on an ongoing basis. Rather than presenting students with a discrete number of diverse experiments to illustrate different economic concepts, he opts for the adoption of a single experiment that lives for the duration of the semester. This approach…

In Ireland, new science curricula were introduced at primary and early post-primary levels in 2003, in an effort to reverse declining interest and enrolment in science. This paper reports on a national study that explored first year post-primary students' experiences of and attitudes towards school science under these new curricula. Data were…

This article examines the main strands of thinking about gravity through the ages and the continuity of thought-experiments, from the early Greeks, through medieval times, to Galileo, Newton and Einstein. The key ideas are used to contextualise an empirical study of 247 children's ideas about falling objects carried out in China and New Zealand,…

This laboratory exercise uses a problem-based approach to expose students to some basic concepts relating to proteins and enzymes. One of the main applications of enzymes at the industrial level is their use in the detergent market. The students examine a detergent sample to ascertain whether proteolytic enzymes are a component and, if so, which…

The synthesis and characterization of two copper(II) complexes, [Cu(deen)[subscript 2]](BF4)[subscript 2] and [Cu(deen)[subscript 2]](NO[subscript 3])[subscript 2] (deen = N,N-diethylethylenediamine), that show interesting thermochromic properties, are described. The subtle alternation of coordination geometry around Cu(II) is responsible for the…