The COVID-19 pandemic posed significant challenges for practical teaching within the sciences. While many instructors adopted innovative alternatives to conventional practicals, many relied on digital approaches that did not give students hands-on experience. In this study we evaluate the use of 'at home' practical kits used in first year physics…

A revised version of a traditional physical chemistry laboratory experiment has been developed to enhance student discussion in the laboratory and to improve students' connections between physical chemistry concepts and real molecular systems. In this experiment, students explore the keto-enol tautomerization of 2,4-pentanedione. However, unlike…

An undergraduate-level Computational Chemistry project was incorporated initially into a Physical Chemistry course and then into the laboratory curriculum in the subsequent application. Before the introduction of the project, the lectures covered quantum chemistry, spectroscopy, and kinetics while simultaneously including computational chemistry…

The purpose of this study was to identify and describe the improvement of students' scientific process skills and scientific creativity. This type of research is quantitative descriptive research with thirty students of Class VII of the junior high school Negeri 12 with the main subjects of temperature and heat. The results showed that the…

The goals of this advanced physics laboratory course emphasized not only to improve students' physics knowledge but also spectrum scientific abilities in particular for preparing their future-ready competencies. One of those scientific abilities was initiated to study that was "the ability to design experiment". It was the fundamental…

A new method for teaching advanced laboratories at the undergraduate level is presented. The intent of this approach is to get students more engaged in the lab experience and apply critical thinking skills to solve problems. The structure of the lab is problem-based and provides students with a research-like experience. Students read the current…

A course is described where students are engaged in an inquiry-based quarter-long research project to synthesize a known pharmaceutical target. Students use literature search engines, such as Reaxys and SciFinder, and the primary chemical literature as resources to plan and perform the synthesis of their pharmaceutical target. Through this…

A dynamic assessment tool was developed and validated using Mokken scale analysis to assess the extent to which kindergartners are able to construct unconfounded experiments, an essential part of scientific reasoning. Scientific reasoning is one of the learning processes happening within science education. A commonly used, hands-on,…

This article describes how a third grade class (ages 8-9) conducted a temperature-related science experiment. The goal of the experiment was to build on the following question: What would happen if you took three different thermometers, all reading the same temperature, wrapped them in three different socks, one woollen, one silk, and one cotton,…

This article describes a comprehensive treatment of experimental enzyme kinetics strongly coupled to electronic data acquisition and use of spreadsheets to organize data and perform linear and nonlinear least-squares analyses, all in a manner that promotes development of important reasoning skills. Kinetic parameters are obtained for the stable…

These proceedings contain the papers of the 18th International Conference on Cognition and Exploratory Learning in the Digital Age (CELDA 2021), held virtually, due to an exceptional situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, from October 13-15, 2021, and organized by the International Association for Development of the Information Society…

Supports the use of a science experiment option in the high school curriculum to enhance student learning. Presents a science experiment rubric and connects the use of science projects with standards. (DDR)

What happens when children pour water through a funnel? They begin to understand science and math concepts such as flow, force, gravity, and volume. What happens when children mold sand to create a tunnel? They develop skills in areas such as problem solving and predicting. They also gain knowledge about absorption and the properties of sand and…

Undergraduate biology programs are currently undergoing reform to involve students in biomedical research. Engaging students in more active, hands-on experiments allows students to discover scientific principles for themselves, and to develop techniques of critical thinking and problem solving. This models the world of real scientific research,…

Two experiments examined how learning from different media--real pulley systems or simple line diagrams--affected mechanical learning and problem solving. The first showed that subjects' learning improved equally in both cases; all subjects showed an increase in quantitative understanding as they learned; and subjects manipulating real pulley…