Immersive Virtual Reality (iVR) can help students visualise and explore complex chemical concepts, such as protein enzyme structures and interactions. We designed a set of collaborative iVR-based learning tasks on the interaction between a protein enzyme and its substrate. We investigated how 18 pairs (36 students) in undergraduate chemistry…

Instructors make assessment decisions based on their knowledge and experiences. Assessment practice is an essential element of instruction, and the outcomes of assessments have a broad impact on both students and instructors. Efforts to provide strengths-focused, relevant professional development support regarding assessment are enhanced by…

In recent years there has been an increased emphasis on recruiting and retaining STEM students in order for the United States to retain its position as a leader in STEM fields (President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, (2012), Report to the president, engage to excel: Producing one million additional college graduates with degrees…

Student understanding regarding topics in upper-division courses, such as biochemistry, is not well represented in the literature. Herein we describe a study that investigated students' reasoning about Michaelis-Menten enzyme kinetics and enzyme inhibition. Our qualitative study involved semistructured interviews with fourteen second-year students…

In this work, we discuss the importance of underlying theoretical assumptions in research, focusing on the conclusions reached when analyzing data from a misconceptions constructivist (stable, unitary) perspective in contrast to a fine-grained constructivist (resources, knowledge-in-pieces) perspective. Both frameworks are rooted in the idea that…

Most chemistry educators agree that deep understanding of the nature of noncovalent interactions is essential for learning in chemistry. Yet decades of research have shown that students have persistent incorrect ideas about these interactions. We have worked in collaboration with a community of chemistry, biology, and biochemistry educators to…

The purpose of this quasi-experimental non-equivalent pretest posttest control group research was to determine whether or not the use of a collaborative pH computer simulation has an impact on the knowledge, confidence, and conceptual understanding of fundamental pH concepts for undergraduate Chemistry II students. A purposeful sample of 59…

Noncovalent interactions determine the three-dimensional structure of macromolecules and the binding interactions between molecules. Students struggle to understand noncovalent interactions and how they relate to structure-function relationships. Additionally, students' difficulties translating from two-dimensional representations to…

Instructors draw on their intentions for student learning in the enactment of curriculum, particularly in the selection and presentation of external representation of scientific phenomena. These representations both create opportunities for students to experience non-experiential biochemical phenomena, such as protein translation, and constrain…

The purpose of this study was to investigate how a chemistry teacher's questions influence the classroom discourse. It presents a fine-grained analysis of the rich variety of one teacher's questions and the roles they play in an upper secondary chemistry classroom. The study identifies six different functions for the teacher's questions:…

Despite the advancements in the production and accessibility of videos and animations, a gap exists between their potential for science teaching and their actual use in the classroom. The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate an approach to boost chemistry and biology teachers' Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) and their…

Biogeochemical cycles support all anthropogenic activities and are affected by them, therefore they are intricately interlinked with global environmental and socioeconomic issues. Elements of these cycles that are already included in the science/chemical curriculum and textbooks intended for formal education in Greek secondary schools were…

In this work, we developed an ontological tool, based on the scientific realism of Mario Bunge, for the analysis of the presentation of natural processes in science textbooks. This tool was applied to analyze the presentation of the concept of osmosis in 16 chemistry and biology books at different educational levels. The results showed that more…

Creative exercises (CEs), a specific form of open-ended assessment tools, have been shown to promote students' linking of prior and newly learned concepts within a course. In this study, we examined how often students in an upper-division undergraduate biochemistry course linked prior chemical concepts to biochemical ones in response to CE…

Many biochemistry laboratory courses expose students to laboratory techniques through pre-determined experiments in which students follow stepwise protocols provided by the instructor. This approach fails to provide students with sufficient opportunities to practice experimental design and critical thinking. Ten inquiry modules were created for a…