The dissertation is composed of two sections. The first section is composed of chapters one, two, and three and describes the study of macrocyclic [beta]-hairpin peptides derived from [beta]-sheet peptides. The second section is composed of chapters four and five and discusses the curricular innovations made to support the remote instruction of an…

Many colleges and universities take a "weeding out the weak" approach to teaching STEM, despite substantial literature that emphasizes the values and effectiveness of various other approaches. Introductory, foundational, STEM courses which are often taken by students during their first and second years of college, have been shown to…

There has been a growing emphasis on integrating green and sustainable chemistry (GSC) into the curriculum. Unfortunately, there is yet to be a nationwide, uniform decision of which aspects should be included or how, leaving individual instructors or institutions to decide whether--and how--to address GSC knowledge. Furthermore, faculty nationwide…

The American school system is funded, operated, and evaluated based on student academic achievement data that is generated by various assessment tools and grading practices. The most traditional grading practice, norm-referenced grading, assesses student academic achievement on a 100-point scale that is further broken into categorical levels (A-F)…

The dissertation is composed of two main parts. The first half describes efforts to study amyloid peptides using macrocyclic peptide model systems, and the potential deleterious effects of uronium peptide coupling agents on human health. The second half focuses on my experience in chemistry teaching and the chemical education research I conducted.…

The research presented in this dissertation looks at how students in general chemistry reason about atomic emission spectroscopy. Situated within the context of a transformed general chemistry curriculum called "Chemistry, Life, the Universe, and Everything" (CLUE), the goal of this study was to (1) characterize the various ways in which…

The first courses freshman university students typically enroll in are the introductory science and math, courses that bridge from and build upon their prior educational experiences. These introductory courses often have large enrollment lectures coupled with supplemental sessions to teach using traditional educational practices, which may operate…

Climate change and the resulting and related environmental and humanitarian outcomes are some of the fundamental challenges of the 21st century. Green chemistry, a relatively recent addition to the chemistry family, aims to reframe chemistry so that chemistry ethically and responsibly attends to its own environmental and human health impacts and…

Recently, there have been many calls for an increase in instruction on the nature of science (NOS) in schools (i.e. NRC, 1996; NGSS Lead States, 2013). These calls recognize the importance of this topic at all levels of science education, but there is little guidance in terms of how to address it effectively in curricula. Similarly, there have…

Quantum mechanical (QM) and molecular docking methods are used to probe systems of biological and synthetic interest. Probing interactions of nucleobases within proteins, and properly modeling said interactions toward novel nucleobase development, is extremely difficult, and of great utility in RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutics. The issues in…

In this project we developed conductive thermoplastic resins by adding varying amounts of three different carbon fillers: carbon black (CB), synthetic graphite (SG) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNT) to a polypropylene matrix for application as fuel cell bipolar plates. This component of fuel cells provides mechanical support to the stack,…

This dissertation describes a systematic investigation of university student and K-12 teacher reasoning about key ideas relevant to the development of a particulate model for matter. Written assessments and individual demonstration interviews have been used to study the reasoning of introductory and sophomore-level physics students, introductory…

The purpose of this study was to understand how Thai scientists from four disciplines viewed nature of science (NOS). The sixteen participating scientists were chosen from the areas of chemistry, physics, biology/life sciences, and geology/earth sciences and were separated into novice and expert groups. The scientists' understandings about NOS…

Programs supported by the Carl D. Perkins Act of 2006 are required to operate under the state or national content standards, and are expected to carry out evaluation procedures that address accountability. The Indiana high school course, "Advanced Life Science: Foods" ("ALS: Foods") operates under the auspices of the Perkins…