This article describes a computational project designed for undergraduate students as an introduction to mathematical modeling. Students use an ordinary differential equation to describe fish weight and assume the instantaneous growth rate depends on the concentration of dissolved oxygen. Published laboratory experiments suggest that continuous…

Two studies examined the effects of university students' achievement goals on performance under low versus high challenge conditions. The first was a laboratory experiment in which participants were assigned goals to pursue on a novel mathematics task alleged to be simple or complex to use. The second was a survey study in which students set goals…

We present "Xipx," the first port of a major educational operating system to a processor in the emerging class of many-core architectures. Through extensions to the proven Embedded Xinu operating system, Xipx gives students hands-on experience with system programming in a distributed message-passing environment. We expose the software primitives…

An upper-division instrumental chemistry laboratory has been developed in which students use atomic force microscopy (AFM) to collect force curves on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) elastomers. Force curves are used to quantify the stiffness of elastomers prepared with different base-to-curing agent ratios. Trends in observed spring constants of the…

The essential oil of "Nepeta cataria" L. (catnip), an herbaceous plant known popularly as a stimulant for the domestic cat, is enriched in two diastereomeric iridoid lactones (nepetalactones) that vary in ratio. Although the diastereomers are chromatographically separable and exhibit different 1D NMR spectra, it is not possible to…

Drawing a schematic energy diagram for the decomposition of H[subscript 2]O[subscript 2] catalyzed by MnO[subscript 2] through a simple thermometric measurement outlined in this study is intended to integrate students' understanding of thermochemistry and kinetics of chemical reactions. The reaction enthalpy, delta[subscript r]H, is…

An undergraduate exercise in computational chemistry that investigates the energy barrier for pyramidal inversion of amines and phosphines is presented. Semiempirical calculations (PM3) of the ground-state and transition-state energies for NR[superscript 1]R[superscript 2]R[superscript 3] and PR[superscript 1]R[superscript 2]R[superscript 3] allow…

Modern undergraduate organic chemistry textbooks provide detailed discussion of stoichiometric Cr- and Mn-based reagents for the oxidation of alcohols, yet the use of such oxidants in instructional and research laboratories, as well as industrial chemistry, is increasingly avoided. This work describes a laboratory exercise that uses ambient air as…

This paper looks at the conceptual differences between video game learning and traditional classroom and laboratory learning. It explores the notion of virtual experience by comparing a commonly used high school laboratory protocol on DNA extraction with a similar experience provided by a biotechnology themed video game. When considered…

This paper presents an analysis of the scientific reasoning of a dyad of secondary school students about the phenomenon of dissolution of gases in water as they work on this in a simulated laboratory experiment. A web-based virtual laboratory was developed to provide learners with the opportunity to examine the influence of physical factors on gas…

Virtual Labs (VLAB) is a multi-institutional Open Educational Resources (OER) initiative, exclusively focused on lab experiments for engineering education. This project envisages building a large OER repository, containing over 1650 virtual experiments mapped to the engineering curriculum. The introduction of VLAB is a paradigm shift in an…

A lecture-based engineering mechanics course (Statics) is redesigned using the Emporium model. Whereas students study the material outside of class via asynchronous online delivery of the content and instructional videos, they do all the other activities (e.g., assignments, tests) either individually or in groups inside the classroom. Computer-…

An innovative and inexpensive optical microscopy experiment for a quantitative analysis or an instrumental analysis chemistry course is described. The students have hands-on experience with a dark field microscope and investigate the wavelength dependence of localized surface plasmon resonance in gold and silver nanoparticles. Students also…

Students will analyze the coevolution of the predator-prey relationships between "Tyrannosaurus rex" and its prey species using analyses of animal speeds from fossilized trackways, prey-animal armaments, adaptive behaviors, bite marks on prey-animal fossils, predator-prey ratios, and scavenger competition. The students will be asked to…

Integration of technology, social learning and scientific models offers pedagogical opportunities for science education. A particularly interesting area is thermal science, where students often struggle with abstract concepts, such as heat. In taking on this conceptual obstacle, we explore how hand-held infrared (IR) visualization technology can…