This article describes the use of Fermi questions as a problem-solving tool.

This article engages students in a simulation of the Coat Check problem, in which four women check their coats only to have them returned at random. Students examine the experimental and theoretical probability of at least one woman getting her own coat back.

Principal components analysis (PCA) is used to explore the structure of data sets containing linearly related numeric variables. Alternatively, nonlinear PCA can handle possibly nonlinearly related numeric as well as nonnumeric variables. For linear PCA, the stability of its solution can be established under the assumption of multivariate…

This paper provides surface area and volume formulas for surfaces of revolution in R[superscript n]. In addition the authors illustrate how to obtain the formulas for volume and surface areas of revolution about the x- or y-axis in two different ways: a "heuristic" argument and a rigorous calculation using "cylindrical" coordinates. In the last…

We have developed a simple, resilient experiment that illustrates the Nernst equation and Beer-Lambert law for our second-semester general chemistry students. In the experiment, the students monitor the reduction of ferricyanide ion, [Fe(CN)[subscript 6]][superscript 3-], to ferrocyanide, [Fe(CN)[subscript 6]][superscript 4-], both…

A report is presented to describe how students can be empowered to construct the full, double minimum inversion potential for ammonia by performing intrinsic reaction coordinate calculations. This work can be associated with the third year physical chemistry lecture laboratory or an upper level course in computational chemistry.

Game theory approaches to find optimal marketing decisions are considered. Antagonistic games with and without complete information, and non-antagonistic games techniques are applied to paired comparison, ranking, or rating data for a firm and its competitors in the market. Mix strategy, equilibrium in bi-matrix games, bargaining models with…

Molecular orbital plots are used to analyze and interpret NMR spin-spin coupling constants, also known as J coupling constants. Students have accepted the concept of contributions to molecular properties from individual orbitals without the requirement to provide explicit equations.

Recent studies conclude that teachers are important for student learning but it remains uncertain what actually determines effective teaching. This study directly peers into the black box of educational production by investigating the relationship between lecture style teaching and student achievement. Based on matched student-teacher data for the…

"Culture and the Interaction of Student Ethnicity with Reward Structure in Group Learning" examined the effects of different reward systems used in group learning situations on the math skills of African-American and white students. The study analyzed data on 75 African-American and 57 white fourth- and fifth-grade students from urban…

Compares the results of a whole-class test on mental computation problems given to fifth graders who had been in a reform-based mathematics curriculum with those of students in a traditional mathematics curriculum. Reports that the students in the reform-based program performed much higher than the comparison group on all but one problem. (16…

The authors examine the asymptotic effect of omitting a random coefficient in the multilevel model and derive expressions for the change in (a) the variance components estimator and (b) the estimated variance of the fixed effects estimator. They apply the method of moments, which yields a closed form expression for the omission effect. In…

Many students graduate from high school unprepared for the rigorous reading required in entry-level college and career work. This brief builds on a recent report (Wilkins et al. 2010) that used the Lexile measure (a method for measuring the reading difficulty of prose text and the reading capability of individuals) to estimate the proportion of…

In recent years, students and parents have seen tuition costs at colleges and universities rise, to the extent that many low-income families may feel a college education for their child is out of their financial reach. However, this sky-high tuition is often partially, or even largely, subsidized by various forms of financial aid. For families to…

According to industry representatives, computer science education needs to emphasize the processes involved in solving computing problems rather than their solutions. Most of the current assessment tools used by universities and computer science departments analyze student answers to problems rather than investigating the processes involved in…