Enhancing the problem-solving skills of learners belonging to socio-economically disadvantaged groups is a great concern in general and particularly in the Indian context. Problem-solving skills are the most important skills of the 21st century for all learners to acquire necessary competencies. The main purpose of this work is to investigate the…

Air pollution is one of our day's significant reasons for human health problems and affects every community throughout the world. Monitoring air pollution is a key aspect of raising awareness and pollution mitigation approaches followed by different nations. This paper targets to develop a low-cost Internet of things-based embedded system to…

The sudden COVID-19 outbreak has obstructed the conventional method of teaching causing a mandated shift to virtual platforms. A developing country like India which predominantly depended on conventional methods of teaching and learning in the pre-COVID era is gradually gaining success in effectively transitioning into virtual classrooms with the…

[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Instructional labs: Improving traditions and new directions.] We present the pedagogical design and implementation of "ESSENCe": Experimental problem solving using Staging, Scaffolding, Embedded information sources, iNstruments, and Collaboration. Research in experimental physics requires…

Students are introduced to the term wavelength in optics at school level. In this paper, we present an inexpensive and simple method to measure the wavelength of the light of a light emitting diode using a light depending resistor. This experimental set-up is developed at Science Laboratory, Nehru Planetarium (Mumbai), India. It is useful as an…

Although hands-on experience in hematology practical work has been an integral part of physiology education, the students' perception on the importance of the same has remained largely unexplored. The objective of this study was to explore students' perception on the importance of "doing" hematology experiments. The first-year medical…

In this paper, the effectiveness of training faculty in laboratory teaching (the teaching of science in a laboratory setting using experiments and similar exercises) through the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT)--virtual technologies for faculties in institutions of higher education in the Indian state of Kerala--was evaluated…

The aim of this paper is to investigate the stability of a bottle filled with different volumes of water, and to determine the angle at which it topples over for each volume of water. Data for the angle at which the bottle toppled were gathered experimentally using a cylindrical 1 litre bottle, and two theoretical models were then developed,…

The use of science kits is a growing trend in India. The kits provide equipments, apparatus and chemicals in the form of a moving laboratory to use in science classes. This research paper highlights the issues and challenges faced by the Government school teachers of Delhi in India while using science kits during teaching-learning process at upper…

This paper describes an inexpensive experiment to determine the carbonyl stretching frequency of an organic keto compound in its ground state and first electronic excited state. The experiment is simple to execute, clarifies some of the fundamental concepts of spectroscopy, and is appropriate for a basic spectroscopy laboratory course. The…

Virtual Labs (VLAB) is a multi-institutional Open Educational Resources (OER) initiative, exclusively focused on lab experiments for engineering education. This project envisages building a large OER repository, containing over 1650 virtual experiments mapped to the engineering curriculum. The introduction of VLAB is a paradigm shift in an…

Scientific investigations play a vital role in teaching and learning the process of science. An investigative task that was developed for pre-university students is described here. The task involves extraction of an enzyme from a vegetable source and its detection by biochemical method. At the beginning of the experiment, a hypothesis is presented…

Teaching argumentation with appropriate activities and strategies would support a wide range of goals in science education. Though science labs have been suggested and employed for argumentation activities, such educational expenditures are likely to be beyond the means of most schools in under-resourced areas. Due to the lack of appropriate…

Numerous models have been constructed to aid teaching respiratory mechanics. A simple model using a syringe and a water-filled bottle has been described by Thomas Sherman to explain inspiration and expiration. The elastic recoil of the chest wall and lungs has been described using a coat hanger or by using rods and rubber bands. A more complex…

We describe an interactive collaborative environmental education project that makes advanced laboratory facilities at Brookhaven National Laboratory accessible for one-year or multi-year science projects for the high school level. Cyber-enabled Environmental Science (CEES) utilizes web conferencing software to bring multi-disciplinary,…