Undergraduates use a spike sorting routine developed in Octave to analyze the spiking activity generated from mechanical stimulation of spines of cockroach legs with the inexpensive SpikerBox amplifier and the free software Audacity. Students learn the procedures involved in handling the cockroaches and recording extracellular action potentials…

Nowadays, patients' safety is the top priority for medical services around the world. However, it is believed that many of the adverse events in hospitals are preventable. Type and screen (T&S) procedures require intense practical training by each medical practitioner in each hospital. This study applied an interactive Virtual Reality (VR)…

Maintaining your research team's productivity during the COVID-19 era can be a challenge. Developing new strategies to mentor your research trainees in remote work environments will not only support research productivity and progress toward degree, but also help to keep your mentees' academic and research careers on track. We describe a three-step…

The purpose of this study was to understand how students engage in computer-supported modeling-based activities (CSMBAs), and the relationship between their engagement and their modeling competence. Different facets of learning engagement were measured through multiple data, including performance on modeling tasks, self-reported level of…

A modern cybernetic potentiostat plays a significant role in realizing various electrochemical measurements. This technology report describes a general-purpose, scalable, handheld (10 cm[superscript 2]), yet affordable hardware-software framework for a potentiostat, galvanostat, and electrochemical impedance spectrometer with high capabilities:(1)…

The use of radioactive isotopes in radioactive decay studies can be a problem due to the manipulation of radioisotopes, expensive equipment, and the difficulty of finding samples with a reasonable half-life (between 1 and 10 min). In this paper, we present a mock-up of a Geiger-Mu¨ller counter plus three fictitious radioisotopes. They form an…

An adaptive weight estimation approach is proposed to provide robust latent ability estimation in computerized adaptive testing (CAT) with response revision. This approach assigns different weights to each distinct response to the same item when response revision is allowed in CAT. Two types of weight estimation procedures, nonfunctional and…

Background: Immersive technologies may be an avenue to explore the construct of human--nature connection more thoroughly and without some of the obstacles to accessing nature in-person. Purpose: The aim of this project was to discover if self-exposure to immersive virtual nature can lead to any change in nature connectedness. Methodology/Approach:…

In this mixed-method study, we investigated the impact and design of a multiuser, virtual reality (VR) supported teaching simulation, in comparison with live classroom teaching simulation, on the participatory training of teaching and the teaching knowledge development of student instructors. A total of 40 university teaching assistants…

Early learning assessment is a necessary mechanism for understanding skills children possess and to inform their instruction. Assessing early learners is different in many aspects than assessing older students. Considerations such as mode of assessment, supports necessary to obtain instructionally relevant data, and the impact of feedback for…

A common belief among students is that computing is a boring subject that lacks a connection to the real world. The first class (one 80-minute session) in an introductory computer science course may be an appropriate instance to combat such a belief. Previous studies have used course-wide interventions, e.g., games and physical/tangible devices to…

Engagement strategies for classroom instruction are now more important than ever because many schools utilize remote learning options. Classroom engagement allows teachers to keep students focused on the lesson, create a classroom community, and monitor students' progress. However, many teachers have struggled with incorporating engagement…

Active and collaborative learning has shown considerable promise for improving student outcomes and reducing group disparities. As one common form of collaborative learning, pair programming is an adapted work practice implemented widely in higher education computing programs. In the classroom setting, it typically involves two computer science…

Researchers based in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) often cannot access conventional but high-priced ethnographic tools. I developed a low-cost methodology as an exercise in meeting the needs of both LMIC-based researchers and the broader qualitative community. As demonstrated in this proof of concept, ethnographic researchers should…

This study investigated changes in learners' motivation, engagement, performance, and spatial reasoning over time and across different levels of virtual reality (VR) immersion. Undergraduate participants explored a virtual solar system via a moderately immersive or highly immersive VR platform over three sessions. In a third condition,…