The overall goal of this study was to evaluate student experiences in online laboratory courses in order to inform the design and improvement of lab activities in a distance education program. Students were surveyed about their satisfaction and perceptions of usability and learning in both hands-on (at home) and computer-based simulation (virtual) labs in a variety of natural science courses. We also attempted to evaluate the effectiveness of several online chemistry courses taught with either hands-on kits or virtual laboratory activities, and examined the performance of students concurrently enrolled in lecture and laboratory chemistry courses versus those enrolled in a lecture only courses. The majority of survey respondents felt their online laboratory experience was the same as or better than their prior experiences in the traditional setting. Survey data also show that students believe their laboratory experiences reinforced and improved their understanding of concepts presented in lectures and the textbook, and thus may have helped them perform better on course assessments. Our data on performance suggest that students enrolled in online science courses do as well or better than their peers enrolled in traditional courses. The data also suggest that students who take lecture and laboratory concurrently outperform their lecture-only peers, independent of course (i.e., general or organic chemistry) or delivery method (i.e., online or traditional).

Mathematical tools from combinatorics and abstract algebra have been used to study a variety of musical structures. One question asked by mathematicians and musicians is: how many d-note set classes exist in a c-note chromatic universe? In the music theory literature, this question is answered with the use of Pólya's enumeration theorem. We solve the problem using simpler techniques, including only Burnside's lemma and basic results from combinatorics and abstract algebra. We use interval arrays that are associated with pitch class sets as a tool for counting.

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Fantasy baseball, a game invented in 1980, allows baseball fans to become managers of pretend baseball teams. In most fantasy baseball leagues, participants choose teams consisting of major league players who they believe will do well in five offensive categories (batting average, home runs, runs batted in, stolen bases, and runs scored) or in five pitching categories. We bring a fantasy baseball activity into entry-level statistics classes. Each student drafts a team on the basis of nine offensive categories, most of which are statistical twists on the five categories above. The primary goal of this activity is to apply the material in an introductory one-semester, non-calculus-based college course in statistics. This is the type of course that AP Statistics courses are designed to emulate, so this project is appropriate for AP Statistics classes as well. Indeed, this project incorporates exploratory analysis, planning and conducting a study, probability, and statistical inference, the four major themes of an AP Statistics class (The College Board 2004).