The laboratory component of undergraduate engineering education poses challenges in resource constrained engineering faculties. The cost, time, space and physical presence requirements of the traditional (real) laboratory approach are the contributory factors. These resource constraints may mitigate the acquisition of meaningful laboratory…

In recent years, there has been a revival of interest in financial incentives to encourage students to attend school and to improve their academic achievement, graduation rates, and other outcomes. Conditional cash transfers programmes in developing countries, especially PROGRESA in Mexico, have found positive effects on attendance in large-scale…

Uses paper chromatography with food dyes to provide a simple and inexpensive basis for teaching chromatography. Provides experimental methodology and tabled results. Includes a solvent system comparison (Rf) for seven dyes and twenty-two solvents. (MVL)

Presents the results of an experiment designed to test two hypotheses: (1) a delay of two weeks at room temperature will have no effect on the viability of fertile chicken eggs and (2) refrigeration will have no effect on the viability of fertile chicken eggs. Experimenters were the author and two ninth-grade students. (PEB)

Ping-Pong vacuum cannons, potato guns, and compressed air cannons are popular and dramatic demonstrations for lecture and lab. Students enjoy them for the spectacle, but they can also be used effectively to teach physics. Recently we have used a student-built compressed air cannon as a laboratory activity to investigate impulse, conservation of…

The sequence of events preceding the actual discovery of oxygen is reviewed; the circumstances surrounding the discovery and isolation of oxygen by Priestley are examined; and the experiments he carried out are described largely in his own words, taken from his books and papers. (DT)

Details a laboratory experiment designed to extend the calcium PVC matrix membrane ion-selective electrode studies to complex formation equilibria. (Author/MA)

Presented is a laboratory exercise that utilizes the natural yeast carbonation method of making homemade root beer to study fermentation and the effect of variables upon the fermentation process. There are photographs, a sample data sheet, and procedural hints included. (Author/MA)

Reviews various science activities investigating polarized light. (SL)

Discusses selected bioinorganic aspects of carbonic anhydrase and describes experiments that will reinforce the students' understanding of the presence and essential role that metal ions have in some biological systems. (SL)

Describes an experimental arrangement for investigating optical barrier penetration. (SL)

Describes an apparatus for an experiment on winding motion in three dimensions. Discusses theory and provides a calculation example. (JM)

Article focuses on defining the role of demonstration in general and experiments in particular in science education at the high school level, on the basis of psychological data and recent conceptions about the nature of science. (Author)

Discusses a course, centered around 32 experiments taught for advanced students, designed to develop a laboratory strongly suggestive of contemporary research using relatively sophisticated apparatus. Its unique advantage lies in enriching advanced physics curriculum. (DF)

Describes the use of laboratory equipment to demonstrate (1) the interference of light coming from an air wedge, (2) the generation of gas-filled soap bubbles, and (3) the generation of beats with a ripple tank. (LC)