It is generally accepted that if a course or curricular transformation is to be implemented with fidelity, the users must understand how and why the transformation is different from their current practices and which aspects of the transformation are essential to achieving comparable student learning outcomes. In this article, we provide a detailed…

General chemistry laboratory curriculum reform is underway at a midsized state university through a collaborative, inclusive, and iterative approach. Using a backward design approach, faculty collaborated to actualize a shared vision, define laboratory learning objectives, and outline considerations for inclusivity during summer workshops that…

Large, multisection laboratory courses are particularly challenging when managing grading with as many as 35 teaching assistants (TAs). Traditional grading systems using point-based rubrics lead to significant variations in how individual TAs grade, which necessitates the use of curving across laboratory sections. Final grade uncertainty…

Language, and thus scientific language, is essential for chemistry teaching and learning. To be able to successfully teach the scientific language of chemistry, the Chemish, (prospective) chemistry teachers need to possess pedagogical scientific language knowledge (PSLK).Thus, teacher preparation needs to focus explicitly on Chemish and its…

The variation in curricular approaches to and content of chemical safety instruction in undergraduate programs highlight the need for a more comprehensive, integrative approach. This work describes the efforts of two institutions, Wittenberg University and St. Olaf College, to develop and to implement a chemical safety curriculum across the…

The instruction of high enrollment general and organic chemistry laboratories at a large public university always has curricular, administrative, and logistical challenges. Herein, we describe how we met these challenges in the transition to remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. We discuss the reasoning behind our approach, the utilization…

Over the past 20 years, significant effort has been devoted to advancing the modular approach to teaching chemistry laboratory courses. The development and implementation of two modules are presented here for teaching a second-semester physical chemistry laboratory course using the modular approach: an inquiry-based module concerning proteins and…

While there have been an increasing number of evidence-based instructional strategies propagated, less literature exists on how to propagate a curriculum. This paper is meant to present how the theory of "Design-Based Implementation Research" (DBIR) can be used as a framework to propagate such innovative curricula. DBIR is a research…

The shift to remote teaching induced by the COVID-19 pandemic has increased pre-existing academic disparities in the student community, augmenting the disadvantages for students who already experience opportunity gaps. This work describes the implementation of an online chemistry co-class focused on providing educational and social support to…

There exists a sparse representation of blind and low-vision students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. This is due in part to these individuals being discouraged from pursuing STEM degrees as well as a lack of appropriate adaptive resources in upper level STEM courses and research. Mona Minkara is a rising fifth…

For students who are not science majors, problem-based (PB) laboratories for first-year chemistry provide a more comprehensive experience than conventional expository ones. Implementing PB labs is reasonably easy, as the lab experiments may not need to change; what changes is the way the lab manual is set up and how the actual session is carried…