Describes the construction of the Reduced-Gravity Demonstrator, which can be used to illustrate the effects of gravity on a variety of phenomena, including the way fluids flow, flames burn, and mechanical systems behave. Presents experiments, appropriate for classroom use, to demonstrate how the behavior of common physical systems change when…

Presents a simple and inexpensive procedure for determining the moment of inertia of a physical pendulum both experimentally and analytically. The simplicity of the apparatus enables students to easily change parameters and obtain a wide variety of measurements. (JRH)

Uses two laboratory techniques, Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) and Western Blot, to demonstrate antibody-antigen binding concepts. Includes a list of required materials and directions for the procedure, and makes suggestions for classroom applications. (Contains 13 references.) (YDS)

Describes an experiment that involves measuring the intensity of laser light passed by a linear polarizer. Discusses polarization effects, orthogonal polarizations, instrumentation, and further experiments. (JRH)

Presents an experiment designed to test quantitatively for lead in household items. Generates interest from students because it relates to their lives and uses only a minimal amount of toxic chemicals. (JRH)

Investigates changes in students' understanding of various aspects of measurement before and after participating in two different introductory laboratory courses at two universities in South Africa. Considerable gains were made during instruction with both groups, though some important differences were identified between them. Neither group could…

The role of segment similarity in early (i.e., partially learned) lexical entries was assessed using artificial lexicons in a referential context. During a learning phase participants heard 40 nonsense words, each accompanied by an unfamiliar picture. In testing, participants heard the direction ''Click on the [X]'', and chose which of four…

In developing a theoretical framework for the field of ecological acoustics, Gaver (1993b) distinguished between the experience of musical listening (perceiving sounds) and everyday listening (perceiving sources of sounds). Within the everyday listening experience, Gaver (1993a) proposed that the frequency of an object results from, and therefore…

During a snow bank exploration, students noticed "ice caves," or pockets, in some of the larger snow banks, usually below darker layers. Most of these caves had many icicles hanging inside. Students offered reasonable explanations of ice cave formation--squirrels, kids, snow blowers--and a few students came close to the true ice cave-formation…

Processing of discourse seems to be far from uniform with much evidence indicating that it can be quite shallow. The question is then what modulates depth of processing? A range of discourse devices exist that we believe may lead to more detailed processing of language input (Attention Capturers), thus serving as modulators of processing enabling…

We have developed an "in vitro assay" for following the interaction between the [alpha][subscript i2] subunit and [beta][subscript 1[gamma]2] dimer from sf9 cells. This method is suitable for education purposes because it is easy, reliable, nonexpensive, can be applied for a big class of 20 students, and avoid the commonly used kinetic approach,…

NMR spectroscopy is presented. It is seen that the experiment regarding the synthesis and resolution of 1,1'-Bi-2-naphtol presents a good experiment for teaching organic synthesis and NMR spectroscopy and provides a strategy for obtaining enantiopure compounds from achiral starting materials.

A simple experiment was conducted for studying and demonstrating visually and dramatically the effect of ionic strength on the solubility of an electrolyte is described. It is seen that the experiment visually illustrates the effect of ionic strength on electrolyte solubility by the appearance of the two solutions and by the difference in the…

An experiment that can be used to directly study the local chemical environments of phosphorus in solid amorphous materials is demonstrated. The experiment aims at familiarizing the students of chemistry with the principles of solid-state NMR, by having them synthesize a simple phosphate glass, and making them observe the (super 31)P NMR spectrum,…

A striking finding about human memory is that people's level of accuracy in remembering the orientation of heads on coins is often not simply at the chance level but significantly below it. However, S. W. Kelly, A. M. Burton, T. Kato, and S. Akamatsu (2001) reported that this is not so when two-alternative forced-choice visual recognition is…