College chemistry faculties might not have considered including isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) in their majors' curriculum because experimental data from this instrumental method are often analyzed via automation (software). However, the software-based data analysis can be replaced with a spreadsheet-based analysis that is readily…

Analytical method transfer (AMT) and dissolution testing are important topics required in industry that should be taught in analytical chemistry courses. Undergraduate students in senior level analytical chemistry laboratory courses at Kennesaw State University (KSU) and St. John Fisher College (SJFC) participated in development, validation, and…

Growing evidence has come to suggest that model-based inquiry can improve student learning outcomes and attitudes toward STEM in the biological sciences and beyond. In our introductory biology laboratory course that focuses on cellular and molecular biology, we introduced model-based inquiry (MBI) labs to create a more student-focused course that…

Information literacy is an essential skill for biologists; however, most biology curricula do not intentionally integrate information literacy into classroom and laboratory exercises. There is evidence that developing information literacy skills in undergraduates improves their research skills, writing, and GPAs. Our objective was to integrate…

SenseCube is a multisensor capable of measuring many different real-time events and changes in environment. Most conventional sensors used in introductory-physics labs use their own software and have wires that must be attached to a computer or an alternate device to analyze the data. This makes the standard sensors time consuming, tedious, and…

We examined the preference of undergraduate students for a live or a virtual rat when learning about concepts of operant conditioning. Students were provided with the opportunity to directly compare a virtual and a live rat in a supplemental exercise for Learning courses. We argue that the design of teaching exercises should involve a systematic…

This paper examines the effects of hands-on learning in an undergraduate circuits class that is taught to non-majors; i.e., students outside of electrical and computing engineering. The course, ECE3710, is taught in a blended format facilitated by the video lectures prepared for two Massive Open Online Courses developed for the Coursera Platform.…

We examined the sequential modulation of congruency effects using a task in which the irrelevant information shares the same stimulus dimensions as the relevant information but is presented at an earlier time. In Experiment 1, sequential modulations were observed within a stimulus modality but not between stimulus modalities. In Experiment 2,…

Oxford College is a small liberal-arts intensive 2-year undergraduate division of Emory University, where inquiry-based courses are a required part of the general education program. We have developed an authentic research experience for undergraduates that mimics--as much as possible--a real undergraduate research experience. Our program provides…

Lexical priming, whereby a prime word facilitates recognition of a related target word (e.g., "nurse" [right arrrow] "doctor"), is typically attributed to association strength, semantic similarity, or compound familiarity. Here, the authors demonstrate a novel type of lexical priming that occurs among unassociated, dissimilar,…

Thematic relations are an important source of perceived similarity. For instance, the "rowing" theme of boats and oars increases their perceived similarity. The mechanism of this effect, however, has not been specified previously. The authors investigated whether thematic relations affect similarity by increasing commonalities or by…

The role of causal beliefs in people's decisions when faced with economic problems was investigated. Two experiments are reported that vary the causal structure in prisoner's dilemma-like economic situations. We measured willingness to cooperate or defect and collected justifications and think-aloud protocols to examine the strategies that people…

This paper describes a new severe weather laboratory exercise for an Introductory Weather and Climate class, appropriate for first and second year college students (including nonscience majors), that incorporates inquiry-based learning techniques. In the lab, students play the role of meteorologists making forecasts for severe weather. The…

Mediated priming refers to the activation of a target (e.g., "stripes") by a prime (e.g., "lion") that is related indirectly via a connecting mediator (e.g., tiger). In previous mediated priming studies (e.g., McNamara & Altarriba, 1988), the mediator was associatively related to the prime. In contrast, pure mediated…