The introduction of teaching about liquid crystals is discussed from several points of view: the rationale why to teach them, the basics about liquid crystals or what the teacher should teach about them, the fundamental pre-knowledge of students required, the set of experiments accompanying the teaching and the brief report on the already…

The development of demonstration experiments plays a key role in modern and efficient teaching of physics, chemistry, biology and several other disciplines. Today's computers and electronic devices allow the use of simple software-based instrumentation to achieve flexible and surprisingly transparent experimentation, however, the professional…

Here we report on the successful implementation of an online experimental summary sheet that enabled the continual student monitoring of a large cohort of students undertaking a 6 week enquiry-based laboratory project. Students submitted a weekly research summary that contained information about their data analysis and future experimental plans.…

Different computational models for generating analogies of the form "A is to B as C is to D" have been proposed over the past 35 years. However, analogy generation is a challenging problem that requires further research. In this article, we present a new approach for generating analogies in Multiple Choice Question (MCQ) format that can be used…

We present a low-cost, fully computer-controlled, Arduino-based, educational laboratory (SolarInsight) to be used in undergraduate university courses concerned with electrical engineering and physics. The major goal of the system is to provide students with the necessary instrumentation, software tools and methodology in order to learn fundamental…

The purpose of this study was to investigate in detail the processes involved when the promotion of metaconceptual evaluation facilitates fifth grade students' construction, evaluation, and revision of their explanations for magnetic phenomena. Although much recent research emphasized the importance of student modeling and model construction,…

This study examines how emergent communities might show different patterns of uses and perceptions for communication and profile features when geolocation features are used. It explores the ways that location awareness moderates the social and cognitive processes that motivate people's participation in the sharing of personal information…

Chapter 1: The role of cell division in protein expression is important to understand in order to guide the development of better nonviral gene delivery materials that can transport DNA to the nucleus with high efficiency for a variety of cell types, particularly when nondividing cells are targets of gene therapy. We evaluated the relationship…

Sampling tasks and sampling distributions provide a fertile realm for investigating students' conceptions of variability. A project-designed teaching episode on samples and sampling distributions was team-taught in 6 research classrooms (2 middle school and 4 high school) by the investigators and regular classroom mathematics teachers. Data…

Beginning mathematics teachers at the secondary level (middle and high school grades) have mathematics-specific needs that induction programs should address more substantially. However, a number of issues in how programs can accomplish this are more complex than often framed in discussions occurring in the induction programs and the field of…

Cost-effective, easily replicated program is a win-win situation for high schoolers who teach science and for their elementary students. The thank-you letter from Leslie, a grade-schooler in San Diego County's Ramona Unified School District, speaks volumes about the excitement generated by "Celebrate Science"--an innovative,…

Today, there is a real challenge to enable personalized access to information. Several systems have been proposed to address this challenge including Adaptive Hypermedia Systems (AHSs). However, the specification of adaptation strategies remains a difficult task for creators of such systems. In this paper, we consider the problem of the definition…

Remote access to physical laboratories for education has received significant attention from both researchers and educators as it provides access at reduced cost in sharing manner of real devices and gives students practical training. With the rapid growing of wireless technologies, it has become an essential of learning to have the hand-on…

Video tutorials were designed for students working on a General Chemistry scientific inquiry laboratory in 2008, as a supplement to in-class instruction from a librarian. In 2010, with no opportunity to provide in-class instruction, one of the videos was redesigned and offered to assist students with the exercise. In both years, students were…

Current research suggests a role for biomedical knowledge in learning and retaining concepts related to medical diagnosis. However, learning may be influenced by other, non-biomedical knowledge. We explored this idea using an experimental design and examined the effects of causal knowledge on the learning, retention, and interpretation of medical…