This study examined the roles of gender and STEM major status as predictors of performance in formulating a research question and designing experiment among 70 undergraduate Taiwanese college students participating in inquiry-based learning (IBL). Student participants in this study were involved in discrepant demonstrations of scientific events…

Contribution: Prior studies indicate that students experimenting with characterization of optical planar waveguides use expensive ready-made prism couplers without clear understanding about construction of the entire optical measurement system. This paper presents a cost-effective modified bright-mode prism coupler that helps students learn…

This study explored the effects of collaborative writing instruction on undergraduate nursing students' writing performance and self-efficacy beliefs within an online learning system. A single-group experimental study utilized two instruments, the NCEEC (National College Entrance Examination Center) writing grading criteria (the SRCT) and a…

This classroom activity connection demonstrates the differences between the effects of NaCl (a salt of monovalent metal ions) and CaCl[subscript 2] (a salt of polyvalent metal ions) on swollen superabsorbent polymer gels. Being ionic compounds, NaCl and CaCl[subscript 2] both collapse the swollen polymer gels. The gel contracted by NaCl reswells…

This study investigated the active inhibition of precued distractor locations. In this study, the distractor location was precued by an arrow. Experiment 1 indicated that a valid precue could facilitate target localization. Experiment 2 demonstrated that when conflict trials were included, the distractor precue benefit was eliminated. Experiment 3…

Change detection requires perceptual comparison and decision processes on different features of multiattribute objects. How relative salience between two feature-changes influences the processes has not been addressed. This study used the systems factorial technology to investigate the processes when detecting changes in a Gabor patch with visual…

Educators have indicated that creative teaching is the most important educational activity; nevertheless, most existing education systems fail to engage students in effective creative tasks. To address this issue, this study proposes a mind map based collaborative learning approach for supporting creative learning activities and enhancing…

As more and more undergraduate students act as voluntary tutors to rural pupils after school, there is a growing need for a supporting environment to facilitate adaptive instruction. Among others, a teaching method retrieval system is intended to help tutors find relevant teaching methods for teaching a particular concept. However, teaching…

Single-prime negative priming refers to the phenomenon wherein repetition of a prime as the probe target results in delayed response. Sometimes this effect has been found to be contingent on participants' unawareness of the primes, and sometimes it has not. Further, sometimes this effect has been found to be eliminated when the prime could predict…

An introductory course for humanoid robot motion realization for undergraduate and graduate students is presented in this study. The basic operations of AX-12 motors and the mechanics combination of a 16 degrees-of-freedom (DOF) humanoid robot are presented first. The main concepts of multilink systems, zero moment point (ZMP), and feedback…

Information Gathering is a knowledge construction process. Web learners make a plan for their Information Gathering task based on their prior knowledge. The plan is evolved with new information encountered and their mental model is constructed through continuously assimilating and accommodating new information gathered from different Web pages. In…

The internet has been widely used to promote collaborative learning among students. However, students do not always have access to the system, leading to doubt in the interaction among the students, and reducing the effectiveness of collaborative learning, since the web-based collaborative learning environment relies entirely on the availability…

The WWW is now in widespread use for delivering on-line learning content in many large-scale education settings. Given such widespread usage, it is feasible to accumulate data concerning the most useful learning experiences of past students and share them with future students. Browsing events that depict how past students utilized the learning…