The ocean is a major influence on weather and climate. With this set of lessons, middle school Earth systems science teachers can help their students build an understanding of how large bodies of water can serve as a heat source or sink at different times and how proximity to water moderates climate along the coast. The activity's combination of…

Lessons and homework problems involving a pendulum are often a big part of introductory physics classes and laboratory courses from high school to undergraduate levels. Although laboratory equipment for pendulum experiments is commercially available, it is often expensive and may not be affordable for teachers on fixed budgets, particularly in…

The physics laboratory has long been a distinctive feature of physics education. It has been given a central role in the teaching and learning of physics at school and undergraduate levels in universities. The literature indicates that science educators have suggested that there are academically rich benefits in the learning and understanding of…

Recent emphasis on the science of food and cooking has been observed in our popular literature and media. As a result of this, a new non-science majors course, The Science of Food and Cooking, is being taught at our institution. We cover basic scientific concepts, which would normally be discussed in a typical introductory chemistry course, in the…

The formation constant of iron(III) complex with glycine (Gly) ligand in aqueous acidic medium (0.2 M HNO[subscript 3], I = 0.2 M at 28 plus or minus 1 degree C) was determined spectrophotometrically in which a competing color reaction between Fe(III) and SCN[superscript -] was used as an indicator reaction. Under the specified conditions Fe(III)…

In 2006, the authors began a project to understand what happens in middle school technology education classrooms in order to document the goals that technology education teachers pursue, the instructional strategies they use to teach children to meet these outcomes, the measures they use to assess achievement of these goals, and the learning…

The enrollment and assessment of performance of National diploma students in Science Laboratory Technology Programme in Nuhu Bamalli Polytechnic, Zaria were studied. The study covered ten academic sessions: 1995-2005. Sample means, percentage and students T-test were employed to analyze the data obtained for the study. The enrollment of male and…

The virtual laboratories developed by a life sciences department at a public university in the US were designed for use by college students enrolled in an introductory biology course. The results analyses conducted to examine their effectiveness indicated that self-selected users of the virtual laboratories outperformed non-users on laboratory…

The aim of the Secondary School Modernisation Programme, being implemented in Portugal by "Parque Escolar, EPE", is based on the pursuit of quality and makes Portuguese education a potential international benchmark. This paper discusses the strategies adopted to reorganise school spaces. It describes the conceptual model and highlights…

In this article we present project work on physical measurements and an examination task with a Rijke tube. The aim of our project is to help students increase their knowledge of thermoacoustics while at the same time developing their applied information technology skills and improving their cooperation skills. Our school project promotes pedagogy…

Students learn about physical laws and the scientific method when they analyze experimental data in a laboratory setting. Three common sources exist for the experimental data that they analyze: (1) "hands-on" measurements by the students themselves, (2) electronic transfer (by downloading a spreadsheet, video, or computer-aided data-acquisition…

In a recent influential report by the National Research Council, the role of the laboratory was introduced as follows: "Science courses and the laboratories associated with them should cultivate the ability of students to think independently. They should provide students with exposure to realistic scientific questions and highlight those aspects…

Many institutions are responding to current research about how students learn science by transforming their general chemistry laboratory curricula to be inquiry-oriented. We present a comparison study of student performance after completing either a traditional or an inquiry stoichiometry experiment. This single laboratory experience was the only…

Does the physical environment improve an institution's recruitment efforts? More specifically, could a facility such as a laboratory of the future attract the best and the brightest students and faculty? This issue has been the subject of at least two studies--first, "How Do Students Choose a College?" in 1986 by the Carnegie Foundation for the…

A take-home experiment kit has been developed to reinforce the concepts in a first year physics course that both on and off campus students from a variety of educational backgrounds can successfully use. The kit is inexpensive and is composed of easy to obtain items. The experiments conducted with the kit are directed experiments that require…