The science and technology of radio receives little attention in contemporary education. This article discusses ways to explore the basic operating principles of radio. (Contains 4 figures, 3 footnotes, and 2 notes.)

The mechanisms underlying the poorer serial recall of talker-variable lists (e.g., alternating female-male voices) as compared with single-voice lists were examined. We tested the novel hypothesis that this "talker variability effect" arises from the tendency for perceptual organization to partition the list into streams based on voice…

The theory of syntactic bootstrapping proposes that children can use syntax to infer the meanings of words. This paper presents experimental evidence that children are also able to use word inflections to infer word reference. Twenty-four- and 30-month-olds were tested in a preferential looking experiment. Children were shown a pair of novel…

The role of phonology-to-spelling consistency (i.e., "feedback consistency") was investigated in 3 lexical decision experiments in both the visual and auditory modalities in French and English. No evidence for a feedback consistency effect was found in the visual modality, either in English or in French, despite the fact that consistency…

Traditional methods of teaching anatomy to undergraduate medical and veterinary students are being challenged and need to adapt to modern concerns and requirements. There is a move away from the use of cadavers to new technologies as a way of complementing the traditional approaches and addressing resource and ethical problems. Haptic (touch)…

Many university departments provide public engagement activities, often referred to as "outreach" to school students, their teachers and other members of the public. It is less common for University Departments to run activities for their employees let alone the children of these employees. This paper looks at the value put on an…

Although random assignment is generally the preferred methodology in impact evaluations, it raises numerous ethical concerns, some of which are addressed by securing participants' informed consent. However, there has been little investigation of how consent is obtained in social experiments and the amount of information that can be conveyed--and…

What and how much can children learn without subject teachers? In an attempt to find a limit to self organized learning, we explored the capacity of 10-14 year old Tamil-speaking children in a remote Indian village to learn basic molecular biology, initially on their own with a Hole-in-the-Wall public computer facility, and later with the help of…

The article is a historical recollection of how, for a short while, the Muslim community came to be involved in a teacher training programme and reflects on the underlying issues that had to be addressed. It also considers the impact on the host institution and implications for Muslim students, together with the lessons that should have been…

Presents experiments, demonstrations, activities and ideas relating to various fields of biology to be used in biology courses in secondary schools. Among those experiments presented are demonstrating the early stages of ferns and mosses and simple culture methods for fern prothalli. (HM)

Describes experiments, demonstrations, activities and ideas relating to various fields of chemistry to be used in chemistry courses of secondary schools. Three experiments concerning differential thermal analysis are among these notes presented. (HM)

Virtual worlds have been linked with e-learning applications to create virtual learning environments (VLEs) for the past decade. However, while they can support many educational activities that extend both traditional on-campus teaching and distance learning, they are used primarily for learning content generated and managed by instructors. With…

This paper describes some simple and rapid techniques for examining the growth responses of fungal hyphae cultivated on environmental gradients. The creation of such gradients using agar-based growth media in petri dishes is explained, along with recommendations for quantitative macroscopic and microscopic measurements. The intention is to provide…

Engaging students in science learning can be challenging, and incorporating new forms of technology into science has been shown to provide creative learning experiences. However most technology enhanced learning and e-Science experiences to date have been designed and run by researchers. There is significant challenge in moving these experiences…

Stimulus over-selectivity is a phenomenon displayed by individuals with autism, and has been implicated as a basis for many autistic-spectrum symptoms. In four experiments, non-autistic adult participants were required to learn a simple discrimination using picture cards, and then were tested for the emergence of stimulus over-selectivity, both…