Interactive television is a type of distance education that uses streaming audio and video technology for real-time student-teacher interaction. Here, I discuss the design and logistics for developing a high school laboratory-based science course taught to students at a distance using interactive technologies. The goal is to share a successful…

Many students share the common belief that the limiting reactant in a chemical reaction is the reactant in the smallest quantity of material. To help students overcome this difficulty a hands-on activity for the limiting reactant concept was developed. The activity incorporates the three levels of representation (macroscopic, submicroscopic, and…

We examined the preference of undergraduate students for a live or a virtual rat when learning about concepts of operant conditioning. Students were provided with the opportunity to directly compare a virtual and a live rat in a supplemental exercise for Learning courses. We argue that the design of teaching exercises should involve a systematic…

Recent studies indicated that the aberrant gene expression of peroxiredoxin-6 (prdx6) was found in various kinds of cancers. Because of its biochemical function and gene expression pattern in cancer cells, the association between genetic polymorphism of Prdx6 and cancer onset is interesting. In this report, we have developed and implemented a…

The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of the inquiry-based and explicit-reflective laboratory instruction on preservice science teachers' (PSTs) conceptions of the nature of science (NOS) aspects. This study was carried out during the Laboratory Application in Science II course. All 52 preservice elementary science teachers…

This work reports the development of a survey for laboratory goals in undergraduate chemistry, the analysis of reliable and valid data collected from a national survey of college chemistry faculty, and a synthesis of the findings. The study used a sequential exploratory mixed-methods design. Faculty goals for laboratory emerged across seven…

The technique, termed "collaborative critiquing", was developed to teach fundamental technical writing skills to analytical chemistry students for the preparation of laboratory reports. This exercise, which can be completed prior to peer-review activities, is novel, highly interactive, and allows students to take responsibility for their…

Mobile platforms and cloud computing allow collaborative sharing and submission of work in ways not feasible until recently. In this article, we detail how we took a writing-intensive laboratory and made the submission, reading, grading, and returning of student work online and paper-free, while maintaining familiar elements of pen-and-paper…

Fluency with poroelastic theory is prerequisite to advanced study of material and mass transport properties in a wide range of contexts. Often the greatest challenge in introducing students to the subject is to help them visualize the fluid flows and deformations that accompany phenomena such as creep and stress relaxation. We have developed a…

When you dive underwater, you feel the pressure on your ears and, as you dive deeper, more pressure is felt. This article presents an activity that teachers might find useful for demonstrating the relationship between water depth and pressure. (Contains 5 figures and 1 table.)

RNA interference (abbreviated RNAi) is a relatively new discovery in the field of mechanisms that serve to regulate gene expression (a.k.a. protein synthesis). Gene expression can be regulated at the transcriptional level (mRNA production, processing, or stability) and at the translational level (protein synthesis). RNAi acts in a gene-specific…

Two green chemistry courses have been introduced into the liberal arts curriculum at Susquehanna University. Green chemistry was integrated into an existing course, Chemical Concepts, and offered as Green Chemical Concepts for nonscience majors. This course is designed to instill an appreciation for green chemistry in a large and diverse group of…

This study has investigated the use of an open guided inquiry laboratory course in which a group of pre-service teachers planned and implemented practical work for school purposes. A total of 32 pre-service teachers (physics, mathematics, and chemistry majors) participated in the study. Each participant wrote a reflective essay after completing…

An undergraduate laboratory experiment is described to measure Henry's law constants of organic compounds using a bubble column and gas chromatography flame ionization detector (GC-FID). This experiment is designed for upper-division undergraduate laboratory courses and can be implemented in conjunction with physical chemistry, analytical…

Fugacity and bioavailability can be used to facilitate students' understanding of potential environmental risks associated with toxic chemicals and, therefore, should be incorporated in environmental chemistry and science laboratories. Although the concept of concentration is easy to grasp, fugacity and bioavailability can be challenging…