This experiment describes the synthesis of gentisyl quinone isovalerate, or blattellaquinone, a sex pheromone of the German cockroach that was isolated and identified in 2005. The synthesis is appropriate for the second semester of a second-year organic chemistry laboratory course. It can be completed in two, three-hour laboratory periods and uses…

The speed of sound is measured in several gases using a pulsed laser to create a micro-spark on a carbon rod and a microphone connected to a digital oscilloscope to measure the time-of-flight of the resulting shockwave over a known distance. These data are used to calculate the heat capacity ratios (C[subscript p]/C[subscript V]) of the gases and…

It has been established that both domain-specific (e.g. spatial) as well as domain-general (general intelligence) factors influence human cognition. However, the separation of these processes has rarely been attempted in studies using laboratory animals. Previously, we have found that the performances of outbred mice across a wide range of…

A simple student experiment investigating dependence on air pressure of the attenuation of alpha particles in air is described. An equation giving the pressure needed to absorb all alpha particles of a given energy is derived from the Bethe-Bloch formula. Results are presented for the attenuation of alpha particles from americium 241 and radium…

Interpreting a verb-phrase ellipsis (VP ellipsis) requires accessing an antecedent in memory, and then integrating a representation of this antecedent into the local context. We investigated the online interpretation of VP ellipsis in an eye-tracking experiment and four speed-accuracy tradeoff experiments. To investigate whether the antecedent for…

The restoration of wolves to Yellowstone National park after a 7-year absence created a natural experiment on the ecological effects of top predators. In this activity, students use mathematical models to explore how carrion from wolf kills can reduce negative effects of climate change on scavengers in the park.

Everyone has probably experienced chronostasis, an illusion of time that can cause a clock's second hand to appear to stand still during an eye movement. Though the illusion was initially thought to reflect a mechanism for preserving perceptual continuity during eye movements, an alternative hypothesis has been advanced that overestimation of time…

The influence of phonological similarity on bilingual language processing was examined within and across languages in three experiments. Phonological similarity was manipulated within a language by varying neighborhood density, and across languages by varying extent of cross-linguistic overlap between native and non-native languages. In Experiment…

Describes an experiment for the determination of water/lipid distribution ratios of drugs. (SL)

Experiences and experiments with mirrors will spark pupils' imaginations while providing insights into the nature and behavior of light. (Author/DF)

Describes an experiment in which a simple laser-based apparatus is used for measuring the change in refractive index during the acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of glycidol into glycerine. Gives a schematic of the experimental setup and discusses the kinetic analysis. (MVL)

This research investigated the application of knowledge maps in e-learning materials design and hypothesized that knowledge maps would be more effective than e-learning in general at improving the performance and satisfaction of e-learning. In order to test the hypotheses, we conducted an experiment with 175 participants and randomly assigned them…

In this experiment, syntactic constraints on the retrieval of orthography were investigated using homophones embedded in sentence contexts. Participants typed auditorily presented sentences that included a contextually appropriate homophone that either shared part of speech with its homophone competitor (i.e., was syntactically unambiguous) or had…

This paper proposes a self-regulated learning (SRL) system with scaffolding support in order to develop independent learning skills among students. The SRL system uses self-regulated learning and scaffolding theories to appeal to both instructors and learners. On the part of the instructors, a Content Accessibility Subsystem is provided to easily…

As technology and science advance, the boundary between the disciplines begins to blur, emphasizing that it is now, more than ever, a requirement to have a solid background in multiple fields to fully understand emerging scientific advances. As faculty, we need to equip our undergraduate students not only with an introduction to these modern…