Two experiments were conducted to determine whether explicit instruction focusing on metaphorical collocations would promote the incidental noticing of similar phrases by English learners during a subsequent reading task. Noticing was operationalized using the remember-know protocol and learning was measured on a fill-in-the-blanks test. In…

The topics of molecular modeling and drug design are studied in a medicinal chemistry course. The recently reported structures of several G protein-coupled receptors (GPCR) with bound ligands have been used to develop a simple computer-based experiment employing molecular-modeling software. Knowledge of the specific interactions between a ligand…

The preponderance of the evidence from the engineering education literature demonstrates that inductive teaching methods are more effective than deductive approaches. When students are already familiar with the fundamentals of a topic, however, deductive approaches may make more sense. This paper discusses the implementation of a combination of…

Based on current theories of multimedia learning, we propose a strategy for learning from animations. Two different experimental studies were conducted in order to evaluate the strategy. In the first study, 22 sixth graders learned from an animation without the strategy while 21 students were encouraged to make use of the proposed strategy during…

Two experiments explored the role of vicarious "self" explanations in facilitating student learning gains during computer-presented instruction. In Exp. 1, college students with low or high knowledge on Newton's laws were tested in four conditions: (a) monologue (M), (b) questions (Q), (c) explanation (E), and (d) question + explanation (Q + E).…

We discuss some simple experiments dealing with intriguing properties of light and its interaction with matter. In particular, we show how to emphasize that light reflection, refraction and scattering can provide a proper, physical description of human perception of the "colour" white. These experiments can be used in the classroom with an enquiry…

Analogies are ubiquitous during instruction in science classrooms, yet research about the effectiveness of using analogies has produced mixed results. An aspect seldom studied is a model of instruction when using analogies. The few existing models for instruction with analogies have not often been examined quantitatively. The Teaching With…

The purpose of this experimental study was two-fold. The first purpose was to explore the levels of self-efficacy of pre-service teachers regarding their own reading and writing processes and their abilities to be effective literacy leaders. The second purpose was to implement two different interventions in literacy instruction for pre-service…

We describe an investigative laboratory module designed to give college undergraduates strong practical and theoretical experience with recombinant DNA methods within 3 weeks. After deducing restriction enzyme maps for two different plasmids, students ligate the plasmids together in the same reaction, transform "E. coli" with this mixture of…

This paper describes a competition-style of exercise to teach system and network security and to reinforce themes taught in class. The exercise, called NetSecLab, is conducted on a closed network with student-formed teams, each with their own Linux system to defend and from which to launch attacks. Students are expected to learn how to: 1) install…

Remote learning has been an increasingly growing field in the last two decades. The Internet development, as well as the increase in PC's capabilities and bandwidth capacity, has made remote learning through the internet a convenient learning preference, leading to a variety of new interfaces and methods. In this work, we consider a remote…

A commercially available Grignard reagent (3.0 M solution of phenyl magnesium bromide in ether) was used in a convenient Grignard synthesis in a second-year organic chemistry laboratory without any of the typical failures associated with the Grignard reaction. The reaction setup used oven-dried glassware and no extraordinary measures were taken to…

This study assessed whether and how self-explanation reading training, provided by iSTART (Interactive Strategy Training for Active Reading and Thinking), improves the effectiveness of comprehension processes. iSTART teaches students how to self-explain and which strategies will most effectively aid comprehension from moment-to-moment. We used…

Children with mathematics difficulties suffer from working memory deficits. This study investigated the deficit profile of phonological storage and executive functions in working memory among children with mathematics difficulties. Based on multiple instruments and two assessment points, 68 children were screened out of 805 fifth graders. Of these…

Several Web-based on-line judges or on-line programming trainers have been developed in order to allow students to train their programming skills. However, their pedagogical functionalities in the learning of programming have not been clearly defined. EduJudge is a project which aims to integrate the "UVA On-line Judge", an existing…