Describes activities with organisms from freshwater ponds and ditches. Several experiments involve predation, some involve habitat choices, and one addressees the role of sunlight in supporting plant-eating animals. (PR)

Describes the use of the black-box technique to explore electrical circuit design and circuit elements. (JRH)

Describes a computer-based prelaboratory lecture to replace traditional lecture. Discusses how the CUPLE method was developed, the course structure, and a typical course day. (MVL)

Presents an experiment that makes manifest the energy lost to friction of an iron ball moving along an inclined iron rail, which allows students to compute the rolling friction coefficient. Uses a method based on measurement of deformation produced in a piece of Plasticine by an inelastic collision with the ball and combines mechanical concepts…

Describes experiments to culture cells in a laboratory that provide students with hands-on experience in manipulating cells and a chance to observe cell growth characteristics first hand. Exposes students to sterile technique, cell culture, cell growth concepts, and eukaryotic cell structure. (JRH)

Describes a community-college curriculum that incorporates Socratic Dialogue Inducing (SDI) laboratories into a new calculus-based preengineering physics sequence. SDI allows for group discussion labs that emphasize the concepts being taught in the lectures. (ZWH)

Students who are involved in hands-on science activities are enabled to learn the processes of science, and thus become scientifically literate. (DG)

Explains that trial and error learning is an important way for children and adults to learn. Open-ended activities have great opportunities for error and eventual feedback for error reduction. (PR)

Examines the relative importance of middle school students' explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge in carrying out open-ended laboratory investigations. Results indicate the students (n=207) provided with explicit knowledge through instruction performed significantly better in overall achievement in such investigations than those using only tacit…

Describes the history of Richard Blakemore's discovery of magnetotaxic organisms. Discusses possible reasons why the magnetic response in bacteria developed. Proposes research experiments integrating biology and physics in which students investigate problems using cultures of magnetotaxic organisms. (MDH)

Describes an experiment where the gram-equivalent mass of an unknown metal is determined by reacting the metal with dilute hydrochloric acid and collecting the evolved gas over water. This simple, reliable experiment routinely gives results within 1% of the accepted value. (PR)

Nitrate assimilation by plants provides an excellent system for demonstrating control of gene expression in a eukaryotic organism. Describes an assay method that allows students to complete experiments designed around the measurement of nitrate reductase within a three-hour laboratory experiment. (PR)

Explains how sweet potato roots can be used for plant tissue culture for biology laboratory instruction. (PR)

The Hands-On and Far-Out Physics project is part of the Center for Technology, Environment, and Communication (C-TEC), a project-based learning community at Piner High School in Santa Rosa (California). This article introduces the project team, discusses member activities, presents a walking-speed experiment, and describes a Mars Colony course…

Describes a "dry laboratory" using data from virtual rats to help students understand the hormonal regulation of gastrointestinal function. (Author/WRM)