This article describes workshops for high school physics teachers in Uganda on inquiry-based teaching and PhET simulations. I hope it increases awareness of the conditions teachers face in developing countries and inspires others to give similar workshops. This work demonstrates what is possible with some concerted, but not extraordinary, effort.

Empirical evidence demonstrating that sentence meaning is rapidly reconciled with the visual environment has been broadly construed as supporting the seamless interaction of visual and linguistic representations during situated comprehension. Based on recent behavioral and neuroscientific findings, however, we argue for the more deeply rooted…

During the last few years the Italian school system has seen significant changes but geography continues to be considered a boring and un-useful discipline by public institutions. The main problem is the widespread geographic illiteracy and the fact that very often people do not know the objectives, methodology and tools of geographical studies.…

This case study explores the use of online games to teach personal finance concepts at the college level. A number of free online games targeting such topics as budgeting and saving, risk and return, consumer credit, financial services, and investments were introduced to the experimental group as homework assignments. Statistical results indicate…

The UCLA National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST) is under contract from the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) to conduct research on assessment models and tools designed to support Marine Corps rifle marksmanship. In this deliverable, we first review the literature on known-distance rifle marksmanship…

Recent assessments indicate that American students do not score well on tests of scientific problem solving, relative to students in other nations. IMMEX is a web-based virtual environment that provides students with opportunities to solve science problems by viewing information resources through a suite of menu options, developing a hypothesis…

This is a collective case study seeking to develop detailed descriptions of how programming an agent-based simulation influences a group of 8th grade students' model-based inquiry (MBI) by examining students' agent-based programmable modeling (ABPM) processes and the learning outcomes. The context of the present study was a biology unit on…

Many public school choice programs use centralized mechanisms to match students with schools in absence of market-clearing prices. Among them, the Boston mechanism is one of the most widely used. It is well-known that truth-telling may not be optimal under the Boston mechanism, which raises the concern that the mechanism may create a disadvantage…

The individualized education program (IEP) is a critical component of providing special education services to children with disabilities, outlining the services and modifications that will be provided to help them make progress towards the general curriculum. While simulations have been shown to be an effective means of teaching special education…

The purpose of this study was to identify science teachers' perceptions concerning the use of technology in science laboratories and identify teachers' concerns and recommendations for improving students' learning. Survey methodology with electronic delivery was used to gather data from 164 science teachers representing Texas public schools. The…

The present article discusses the design and impact of computer-based visualization tools for supporting student learning and representational competence in science. Specifically, learning outcomes and student representation use are compared between eight secondary classrooms utilizing The Connected Chemistry Curriculum and eight secondary…

In the last decades, many education researchers have been trying to use computerized learning environments to enhance student learning. Without proper instructional supports and guidance, however, students often failed to acquire knowledge from computer-based learning activities. The objective of this study was to demonstrate how research-based…

This study presents a new approach to estimation of a nonlinear growth curve component with fixed and random effects in multilevel modeling. This approach can be used to estimate change in longitudinal data, such as day-of-the-week fluctuation. The motivation of the new approach is to avoid spurious estimates in a random coefficient regression…

Purpose: Gaming and interactive virtual simulation environments support a learner-centered educational model allowing learners to work through problems acquiring knowledge through an active, experiential learning approach. To develop effective virtual simulations and serious games, the views and perceptions of learners and educators must be…

Computer-based clinical simulations are a powerful teaching and learning tool because of their ability to expand healthcare students' clinical experience by providing practice-based learning. Despite the benefits of traditional computer-based clinical simulations, there are significant issues that arise when incorporating them into a flexible,…