Imagine two fourth-grade classes. Both contain students of comparable demographics and highly respected teachers each with four to five years of experience. Both classes engage in science curricula that emphasize science and engineering practices as outlined in the "Next Generation Science Standards" (NGSS Lead States 2013). Both classes…

As a result of recent developments in digital technologies, new genres as well as new contexts for communication are emerging. In view of these developments, this article argues that the scope of English language teaching be expanded beyond the traditional focus on speech and writing to the production of multimodal ensembles, drawing on a range of…

The objective of this paper is to discuss aspects of high school students' learning of probability in a context where they are supported by the statistical software R. We report on the application of a teaching experiment, constructed using the perspective of Gal's probabilistic literacy and Papert's constructionism. The results show improvement…

Solving well-structured problems often requires using considerable related concepts which are usually scattered and introduced throughout different learning units of a subject. In addition, poor learning of related concepts of preceding units may block the learning of subsequent units, and eventually leads to the inability to solve well-structured…

This study examines the implementation of teaching strategies by graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) in inquiry-based introductory geology labs at a large research university. We assess the degree of inquiry present in each Physical Geology lab and compare and contrast the instructional practices of new and experienced GTAs teaching these labs. We…

This dissertation presents the results of an experiment that measured the learning outcomes associated with three different pedagogical approaches to introductory physics labs. These three pedagogical approaches presented students with the same apparatus and covered the same physics content, but used different lab manuals to guide students through…

A simple undergraduate experiment designed to study cooling purely by radiation and cooling by a combination of convection and radiation is described. Results indicate that the contribution from radiative cooling in normal laboratory experiments is more significant than students often realize, even in the case of forced cooling. (Contains 1…

This paper reports on a simple experiment which enables splitting incident light into two different modes, each having a colour exactly complementary to the other. A brief historical development of colour theories and differences in a physicist's point of view with respect to an artist's one is discussed. An experimental system for producing…

The remediation of acid rain by SO[subscript 2] scrubbing is integrated into a laboratory project appropriate for first-year chemistry students. By burning a small amount of sulfur and bubbling the gas produced through distilled water, the student first observes one of the reactions that produces acid rain. The student then tests four different…

To determine the carbonation degree of materials used in mineral carbonation experiments, a fast, simple, and sufficiently accurate method is required. For this purpose, a method based on the reaction between carbonates and hydrochloric acid was developed. It was noted that this method could also be used to teach undergraduate students some basic…

This chapter provides a selective review of some contemporary approaches to program evaluation. One motivation for our review is the recent emergence and increasing use of a particular kind of "program" in applied microeconomic research, the so-called Regression Discontinuity (RD) Design of Thistlethwaite and Campbell (1960). We organize our…

Various wave optics experiments can be carried out using an ordinary compact disc. The CD is suitable for use as a diffraction grating. For instance, a standard CD (700 MB) has 625 lines/mm. In this article, the authors describe two white-light diffraction demonstrations for a large audience, realizable using a CD (as reflection or transmission…

This article provides a way to determine adequate sample size for the confidence interval of covariate-adjusted mean difference in randomized experiments. The standard error of adjusted mean difference depends on covariate variance and balance, which are two unknown quantities at the stage of planning sample size. If covariate observations are…

Curley and Formica's (2008, 2010) studies of high-expectation entrepreneurship focus on the role of "experimental laboratories" in promoting the start-up and successful development of high-expectation firms. Although it is not difficult to understand the potential usefulness of these experimental labs--business simulators in which skilled partners…

Technology education has the ability to key on major issues that are impacting the world today. Thus, it can change student learning into an experience that can be applied rather than one read about in books. This article aims to provide content and reasoning for the utilization of current economic, political, and societal issues to explore…