There are obstacles to teaching science; however, these obstacles are not insurmountable. One obstacle is the students themselves. Students often labor under the misconception or anxiety that the course material will be too difficult to understand, or boring (mind-numbing), or that the information learned will not be applicable in their day-to-day…

Problem Based Learning (PBL) has proven to be a highly successful pedagogical model in many educational fields, although it is comparatively uncommon in technical education. It goes beyond the typical teaching methodology by promoting student interaction. This paper presents a PBL trial applied to an undergraduate Digital Electronics course in the…

Video usage in educational contexts is on the rise. We examined 3 alternative theories about cognitive mechanisms of learning and their implications for instructional design when video is employed to enhance text-based learning. Hypothesis-testing procedures followed a falsificationist approach, grounded in philosophy of science literature.…

This article reports on two experiments of exposure to music and cognitive performance. In Experiment 1, Canadian undergraduates performed better on an IQ subtest (Symbol Search) after listening to an up-tempo piece of music composed by Mozart in comparison to a slow piece by Albinoni. The effect was evident, however, only when the two pieces also…

An upper-division forensic chemistry experiment is described. It involves using glycolic acid and sodium glycolate as analogs of [gamma]-hydroxybutyric acid and its sodium salt. The experiment shows the use of silylation in GC-MS analysis and gives students the opportunity to work with a commonly used silylating reagent,…

Perceived stress activates the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis, resulting in the release of glucocorticoids into the systemic circulation. Glucocorticoids cause the elevation of blood glucose, providing the necessary energy for the organism to cope with stress. Here, we outline a laboratory exercise that uses a competitive ELISA kit to…

Describes the generation and use of experimental data in teaching economics. Includes a double oral auction experiment and a monopoly pricing experiment. Concludes that such experiments allow the instructor to see what the students have learned, how they reason, and what parts of the material have proved difficult. (DK)

The use of crude flower extracts to the principle of analytical chemistry automation, with the flow injection analysis (FIA) procedure developed to determine hypochlorite in household bleaching products was performed. The FIA comprises a group of techniques based on injection of a liquid sample into a moving, nonsegmented carrier stream of a…

We describe an undergraduate laboratory experiment that combines the advantages of problem-based learning with the need for biochemistry students to become proficient in practical laboratory skills. It also avoids the need to obtain ethical approval for recruiting volunteers and eliminates any possible biosafety issues with the handling and…

An electrochemical synthesis of copper(II) carboxylates has been developed and used in the general chemistry laboratory course for chemistry majors. This synthesis, using nonaqueous solutions, supplements the strategy of providing experiences in synthetic chemistry described by Yoder et al. ("J. Chem. Educ." 1995, 72, 267). (Contains 1 table.)

Human patient simulators are widely used to train health professionals and students in a clinical setting, but they also can be used to enhance physiology education in a laboratory setting. Our course incorporates the human patient simulator for experiential learning in which undergraduate university juniors and seniors are instructed to design,…

A group of five graduate students and a faculty mentor used the cultural popularity of forensics to develop a first-year undergraduate seminar. This course fulfilled two main objectives: First, the graduate student instructors developed professionally through a two-year process of creating, instructing, and revising a course. Second, a variety of…

Active learning is considered by many academics as an important and effective learning strategy. Assessment is integrated in learning as a tool for learning, but traditional assessment methods often encourage surface learning (passive learning) rather than deep learning (active learning). Peer assessment is a method of motivating students,…

Experience in using a user-friendly software, Mathcad, in the undergraduate chemical reaction engineering course is discussed. Example problems considered for illustration deal with simultaneous solution of linear algebraic equations (kinetic parameter estimation), nonlinear algebraic equations (equilibrium calculations for multiple reactions and…

The selective syntheses of the cyclic monoterpenoids alpha-terpineol or alpha-cyclogeraniol from the acyclic monoterpenoid nerol using p-toluenesulfonic acid or chlorosulfonic acid as cyclizing agents, respectively, are described. The different behavior of nerol under diverse experimental conditions such as nature of the acid agents, solvents, and…