Science education reform emphasizes innovative and constructivist views of science teaching and learning that promotes active learning environments, dynamic instructions, and authentic science experiments. Technology-based and hands-on instructional designs are among innovative science teaching and learning methods. Research shows that these two types of instructional methods designed with cons...

Handedness is the natural or biological preference for using one hand more than the other in performing special tasks depending on which hemisphere is dominant for the task (Rice, 1998). People are said to be right handed if they use right hand most of the time, and left handed if they prefer left hand. People are referred to be ambidextrous, if they use both hands equally well and approximatel...

Video motion analysis software was used by 368 introductory physics students in a variety of instructional settings. These high school and college students experienced graduated variations in their use of a video analysis software package. Post-instruction assessment of their ability to interpret kinematics graphs clearly establishes that all performed better than students taught via traditiona...

Web-based experimentation is a key feature in the deployment of eLearning solutions for engineering education. At the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), Web-based experimentation is deployed thanks to a comprehensive environment called the Cockpit. This environment integrates all the components necessary to carry out hands-on practice in a flexible learning context. The C...

The design and implementation of the instructional electric machine laboratory is described in this paper. The objectives of this project are to upgrade 50-year old laboratory equipment and to provide students with hands-on experience on up-to-date electric machines, drives and instruments, as well as to improve their understanding of the theory learned from lectures. Instead of the systems esp...

We report on the initial field tests of Learning Physical Science (LEPS), a new curriculum adapted from Physical Science and Everyday Thinking (PSET). PSET is an inquiry-based, hands-on, physical science curriculum that includes an explicit focus on nature of science and nature of learning. PSET was developed for small enrollment discussion/lab settings. The Learning Physical Science (LEPS) cur...

A theory based renewable energy sources course was complemented with seven hands-on laboratory experiments. The course was designed for engineering and non-engineering undergraduate students and did not require any advanced mathematics or physics background. Each laboratory experiment introduced a miniature version of an energy conversion device that mimicked the insights and workings of a real...

This article reports on the development of a methodology that integrates virtual and hands-on inquiry in a freshman introductory biology course. Using a two time×two order-condition design, an effective combination (blend) of the two environments was evaluated with 39 freshman biology participants. The quantitative results documented no significant effect of presentation order but demonstrated ...

The facilities of an undergraduate optics teaching laboratory that was developed with NSF support have been incorporated in an established course in optical signal transmission. Students with majors in physics and engineering have learned professional optics techniques for evaluating the characteristics of optical fibers and obtained hands-on experience with optical communications.

This paper describes the usability evaluation of a WebGIS. The system under evaluation has been developed for a real-world community in the Swiss canton of Vaud, namely, for people who are involved in wine making. The system’s usability is tested with users from this community. The goal of the study is to validate hypotheses and answer research questions focusing on users’ performance and speci...