Open-ended, inquiry-based multiweek laboratory exercises are the key elements to increasing students' understanding and retention of the major biological concepts. Including original research into undergraduate teaching laboratories has also been shown to motivate students and improve their learning. Here, we present a series of original…

The semantic web brings a new opportunity for efficient information organization and search. To meet the special requirements of the educational field, this paper proposes an intelligent search engine enabled by educational semantic support service, where three kinds of searches are integrated into Educational Information Intelligent Search (EIIS)…

Improving the effectiveness of learning when students observe video lectures becomes urgent with the rising advent of (web-based) video materials. Vital questions are how students differ in their learning preferences and what patterns in viewing video can be detected in log files. Our experiments inventory students' viewing patterns while watching…

This study aimed to investigate the effects of modality and gender on learning from a computer-based matrix graphic organizer. A 2 x 2 factorial experiment was created by crossing two presentation modes (visual text vs. spoken text) and gender. Dependent measures included transfer and comprehension tests. Results revealed a significant modality by…

A simple commercial blood glucose meter is used to follow the kinetics of mutarotation of D-glucose in aqueous solution. The results may be compared with those obtained using an automatic polarimeter, if this is available This experiment is proposed for use by students in a general chemistry, biology, organic chemistry, and physical chemistry…

This experiment targets undergraduate students in an analytical or organic instructional context. Using a simple extraction, this protocol allows students to quantify and qualify monoterpenes in essential oils from citrus fruit peels. The procedures involve cooling down the peels by immersing them into icy water. After a few minutes, the chilled…

This paper reports the results of two sets of studies demonstrating 14-month-olds' tendency to associate an object's behavior with internal, rather than external features. In Experiment 1 infants were familiarized to two animated cats that each exhibited a different style of self-generated motion. Infants then saw a novel individual that had an…

The authors investigated the impact of response activation on dual-task performance by presenting a subliminal prime before the stimulus in Task 2 (S2) of a psychological refractory period (PRP) task. Congruence between prime and S2 modulated the reaction times in Task 2 at short stimulus onset asynchrony despite a PRP effect. This Task 2…

In this article, the authors describe two classroom experiments that can be interpreted by means of Bernoulli's law. The first experiment uses a lighted candle in front of a mirror and a stream of air that is sent obliquely towards the mirror. The purpose of this experiment is to find out which way the flame will bend if air is blown at a given…

Archimedes (287-212 BC) is well known for his explanation of buoyancy, and in particular for his "eureka" moment. This experiment uses his density measurement method to find the purity of gold, and additional confirmation of the findings are given by x-ray fluorescence. (Contains 4 figures and 1 table.)

Recent interest in the benefits of retrieval practice on long-term retention--the testing effect--has spawned a considerable amount of research toward understanding the underlying nature of this ubiquitous memory phenomenon. Taking a test may benefit retention through both direct means (engaging appropriate retrieval processes) and indirect means…

This study examined the selective attention abilities of a simple, artificial, evolved agent and considered implications of the agent's performance for theories of selective attention and action. The agent processed two targets in continuous time, catching one and then the other. This task required many cognitive operations, including prioritizing…

In models of visual word identification that incorporate inhibitory competition among activated lexical units, a word's higher frequency neighbors will be the word's strongest competitors. Preactivation of these neighbors by a prime is predicted to delay the word's identification. Using the masked priming paradigm (K. I. Forster & C. Davis, 1984,…

Models of compensation for phonological variation in spoken word recognition differ in their ability to accommodate complete assimilatory alternations (such as run assimilating fully to rum in the context of a quick run picks you up). Two experiments addressed whether such complete changes can be observed in casual speech, and if so, whether they…

We have developed a laboratory experiment that uses high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to quantify flavonoid levels in a variety of commercial teas. Specifically, this experiment analyzes a group of flavonoids known as catechins, plant-derived polyphenolic compounds commonly found in many foods and beverages, including green and black…