As science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education researchers continue to explore ways to increase college student persistence in STEM fields, the affective domain (e.g., attitudes, perceptions, and self-efficacy) stands out as an area that can significantly impact these efforts. Latent class analysis (LCA) and latent…

Emotions are important contributors to students' motivation, achievement, and persistence toward a goal. A descriptive-correlational study was carried out in order to assess the relationship between student emotions and class performance. A modified version of the Achievement Emotions Questionnaire-Short (AEQ-S) instrument was used with a…

Universities tend to focus on the hard skills required within disciplines, with a general lack of focus on the teaching of soft skills, specifically in the hard sciences, while a graduate with good attributes ought to have both. There is an uncertainty over whose responsibility it is to teach soft skills between industry and universities, with the…

Existing research primarily examines the impact of structured, credit-bearing service learning in undergraduate chemistry, leaving the potential contributions of co-curricular service learning and its lasting influence on chemistry graduates underexplored. Therefore, this mixed-methods study aimed to assess the lasting impact of co-curricular…

General chemistry is a gateway course that students from several STEM-related majors take at the beginning of their college careers. Faced with high attrition rates of students in STEM fields and even higher rates for groups minoritized due to gender and ethnicity/race, this study explored how a general chemistry course influenced students'…

In pursuit of active learning and fostering conceptual understanding, educators and researchers have tirelessly endeavored to reshape the perception of chemistry, transcending its apparent barriers of technical jargon, semantics, and symbolism. One innovative approach that aligns with this mission is the integration of narratives into chemical…

The start of the COVID-19 pandemic saw a change in the way chemistry education was delivered across the globe. As we emerge from the pandemic we can start to assess the medium to long-term impact it has had. In this study, we evaluated the teaching methods used by the UK Higher Education chemistry community over the past two years through the…

Studies investigating chemistry students' understanding of intermolecular forces have listed alternative conceptions; however, there is a call to investigate why students might have these alternative conceptions. This study describes how second semester general chemistry students predict the location of dipole-dipole forces between two molecules…

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the University of Leicester introduced a blended teaching model to continue delivery of their undergraduate Chemistry courses in 2020/21. The transition from in-person to blended provided a good opportunity to investigate student engagement in the blended environment, along with the attitudes of faculty…

A key part of the practice of chemistry is the analysis of chemical composition, including through gravimetric analysis and spectrophotometry. However, the complexity of doing multiple calculations to obtain analytical evidence, such as that required to determine an empirical formula, presents a challenge if such analytical methods are to be…

Organic chemistry presents a significant obstacle for students seeking entry into health-related professions. Students' ability to develop effective study approaches is an important predictor of success in the course. Herein, we report an investigation utilizing an OCH-adjusted M-ASSIST instrument to assess possible changes in students' study…

Current engineering education should develop the noncognitive abilities of students. Psychological capital (PsyCap) is defined as an individual's strengths of self-efficacy, optimism, hope, and resiliency. PsyCap is an essential noncognitive ability that influences student mental health and academic performance, yet limited research has been done…

The COVID-19 pandemic illuminated challenges with assessment, especially in online environments that threaten academic integrity. In the wake of the pandemic, faculty in higher education were seeking alternative assessments that meet the assessment goal(s) of their classroom. Even though the COVID-based disruptions are diminishing, higher…

Access to laboratory facilities and associated instrumentation represents a major barrier to learning in physical science education, due to constraints introduced by limited time and financial resources, cost of acquisition, and health and safety requirements. Virtualized laboratories offer some mitigation of these problems but may also introduce…

The two-semester General Chemistry laboratory sequence for nonchemistry majors at James Madison University has recently made the transition from expository, confirmation experiments to project-based (first semester) and research-based (second semester) curricula; this narrative will describe the development and current state of the Brewing Science…