Described is a teaching method for chemistry that gives college students practice in experimental design. Students are given a problem and required to design a procedure to solve the problem. Problems increase in complexity as the students progress through the courses. (RH)

Discusses aspects of quantitative experimental design to help college science faculty investigate college-level science instruction. (PR)

Describes a simple exercise that can be used to demonstrate the concepts of SI units, experimental design, and significant digits in a manner that holds the attention of students who already understand these concepts but is still valuable for students who are less prepared. (CCM)

Introduces the chicken wing project in which students assess the microbial contamination of chicken wings for the safety of foods. Uses the colony counting technique and direct wash fluid examination for determining the microbial contamination, and investigates methods to reduce the level of microbial contamination. (Contains 14 references.) (YDS)

Introduces an activity in which students design and experiment to determine the mass of a sample of copper without using a balance. Uses water displacement to find the mass of copper. (YDS)

Discusses procedures for investigating animal motion and makes suggestions for conducting a field or laboratory experiment using video. Recommends using nature videos to perform motion analysis. (YDS)

This guide is designed to assist sutdents in preparing a masters thesis or a doctoral dissertation. Part 1 describes the process of preparing a "mini" dissertation proposal, intended to familiarize the student with the dissertation process early in their doctoral program. Part 2 presents examples of dissertation prosposals for: (1) a laboratory…

An introductory educational research course should be comprehensive so as to meet the needs of many students and be a self-contained unit. This course outline follows the sequence of activities involved in an actual research study. Some course topics are debatable because evaluation, research, and statistics overlap considerably. (CP)

Discusses and explains experimental validity, including both internal and external validity, in terms that a classroom teacher can understand and use in his own research. (CK)

Presents a guide to the effective use of surveys and questionnaires by high school journalists. (RL)

Presents guidelines for supervising an undergraduate student doing research, including a sample contract set up between the student and the supervisor. The contract may state the research topic, objective, procedures, laboratory requirements, costs, schedule, additional projects, and grading criteria. Other suggestions include scheduled meetings…

Identifies and explains some of the crucial elements of team research and data analysis, points out common pitfalls, and makes some helpful suggestions. Sections include general recommendations and communicating in statistical language. (ZWH)

A novel experimental sequence for the advanced undergraduate laboratory course has been developed at Earlham College. Utilizing recent improvements in molecular techniques for a time-sensitive environment, undergraduates were able to create a chimera of a selected gene and green fluorescent protein (GFP) in a bacterial expression plasmid over the…

Since the publication of the first edition of "Studying Your Own School", practitioner action research has become an established professional development practice in schools and teacher education programs.While the fundamentals of practitioner action research have not changed, the challenges of large scale reform have dramatically…

Qualitative research procedures may be characterized by the practice of empiricism that is sensitive to individual perspectives of reality. The many techniques that may be used are malleable and situation-specific in their design--contingent on those aspects of social phenomena that are chosen to be studied. Practical curriculum design for…