Developments in the laboratory-based teaching of physics and astronomy are resulting from the collaboration between conventional and distance teaching universities. The collaboration, piCETL, is one of the Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning established as a result of a broad initiative by the Higher Education Funding Council for…

The law of conservation of momentum is one that students often have difficulties understanding. This experiment allows students to use childhood toys to examine and calculate the muzzle velocity of their favourite water gun by using an air track, a spark timer or data logger and the law of conservation of momentum in a one-dimensional case, a…

A laboratory project for a first semester biochemistry course is described, which integrates the traditional classroom study of the structure and function of biomolecules with the laboratory study of these molecules using fluorescence spectroscopy. Students are assigned a specific question addressing the stability/function of lipids, proteins, or…

Students should enjoy their laboratory classes and for this purpose a project-based activity is added to a conventional physical chemistry laboratory. Students were given project work instead of conventional experiment and then they had to make progress in the project according to instructions and then carry out experiments related to the project.

In this exercise the US Standard Atmosphere is used as "data" that a student is asked to model by deriving equations to reproduce it with the help of spreadsheet and graphing software. The exercise can be used as a laboratory or an independent study for a student of introductory physics to provide an introduction to scientific research…

In this article, we present an overview of a suite of light and spectroscopy education materials developed as part of Project LITE (Light Inquiry Through Experiments). We also present an analysis of how introductory college astronomy students using these Project LITE materials performed on the Light and Spectroscopy Concept Inventory (LSCI)…

There are obstacles to teaching science; however, these obstacles are not insurmountable. One obstacle is the students themselves. Students often labor under the misconception or anxiety that the course material will be too difficult to understand, or boring (mind-numbing), or that the information learned will not be applicable in their day-to-day…

We describe two bioinformatics exercises intended for use in a computer laboratory setting in an upper-level undergraduate biochemistry course. To introduce students to bioinformatics, the exercises incorporate several commonly used bioinformatics tools, including BLAST, that are freely available online. The exercises build upon the students'…

According to the hypothesis of misperception of feedback, people's poor performance in renewable resource management tasks can be attributed to their general tendency to systematically misperceive the dynamics of bioeconomic systems. The thesis of this article is that dynamic decision performance can be improved by helping individuals develop more…

The purpose of the current article is to examine the impact of laboratory demonstrations and computer visualizations on learning in a third-year fluid mechanics course at Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). As a first step, on entering the course, students were exposed to a laboratory demonstration focusing on the nature of…

We describe experiments on Benard-Marangoni convection which permit a useful understanding of the main concepts involved in this phenomenon such as, for example, Benard cells, aspect ratio, Rayleigh and Marangoni numbers, Crispation number and critical conditions. In spite of the complexity of convection theory, we carry out a simple and…

Social norms-based interventions targeting college student drinking behaviors have become increasingly popular. Such interventions purportedly modify student misperceptions of fellow student drinking behaviors, which leads to changes in individual drinking behavior. Despite claims of successful interventions, research demonstrating that social…

Can you imagine a class where students cover the content with each other rather than simply listening to the professor's lecture? Can you envision students developing their own laboratory investigations and quizzing each other weekly to check for understanding? Well, that's pretty much how the major science organizations across the nation are…

In this undergraduate physical chemistry laboratory experiment, students acquire a high-resolution infrared absorption spectrum of carbon dioxide and use their data to show that the rotational-vibrational state populations follow a Boltzmann distribution. Data are acquired with a mid-infrared laser source and infrared detector. Appropriate…

An upper-division forensic chemistry experiment is described. It involves using glycolic acid and sodium glycolate as analogs of [gamma]-hydroxybutyric acid and its sodium salt. The experiment shows the use of silylation in GC-MS analysis and gives students the opportunity to work with a commonly used silylating reagent,…