This article offers a concise account of the known science underpinning the greenhouse effect and global warming. The greenhouse effect is described at different levels of sophistication. It explains how greenhouse gases work and their relative contribution to warming. Climate models are introduced, as are climate sensitivity, feedback mechanisms…

An investigation was conducted into the common misconceptions in chemical equilibria, adopted by a sample of UK secondary school students. These included the characteristics of a dynamic equilibrium, the nature of the reactants and products at equilibrium, as well as the effect of conditions and catalyst on equilibrium. Suggestions for improved…

This report investigates the progression of students from GCSE to A level in the same (or related) subject. That is, for a range of subjects, the proportion of GCSE students who continue to study the subject at A level is calculated. To understand possible sources of variation progression rates are broken down by GCSE grade and student gender.…

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…

Each year, a large number of higher education students in the UK transfer from programs at further and higher education colleges to the second or third year of a bachelor's degree. The success of this movement is largely dependent on how closely the curricula of the two programs are aligned. Over the past two years, students from the Higher…

The published study of Nurrenbern and Pickering in 1987 raises awareness among chemistry educators that students' success in answering numerical questions does not necessarily reflect their degree of understanding of the related chemical concepts. Efforts have been made to provide more opportunities for students to improve their ability in…

As part of the current UK GCSE science curriculum, pupils need to use their understanding of science to answer questions about a series of core experiments. Problem-solving and applying knowledge to new situations is fundamental in enabling students to progress in science; however, many learners struggle to develop these skills. This can lead to…

The evaluation of research to allocate government funding to universities is now common across the globe. "The Research Excellence Framework," introduced in the UK in 2014, marked a major change by extending assessment beyond the 'quality' of published research to include its real-world 'impact'. Impact submissions were a key determinant…

There is widespread interest in diversifying and decolonizing the chemistry curricula in higher education. However, this is not reflected in the curricula taught to students prior to coming to university. We describe the results of an online survey of 185 secondary school/college teachers and students (>18 years) and, separately, 79 members of…

In this article we describe a demonstration for most of the elements from the periodic table which together constitute the show "An Elemental Spectacle: A Guided Tour of the Darker Reaches of the Periodic Table."

Students commonly find specialist scientific language problematic. This study investigated developments in chemical language usage by six "non-traditional" students over the course of 1 to 4 years. The students participated in semi-structured interviews and were asked to explain specific chemical scenarios. Interviews were transcribed…

Topics associated with the chemical sciences form a significant part of the curriculum in science at the primary school level in the U.K. In this methodology paper, we demonstrate how a wide range of research articles associated with the chemical sciences can be disseminated to an elementary school audience and how children can carry out…

The present study aimed to reveal science education research (SER) general trends via VOSviewer version 1.6.17 software program. For this purpose, a bibliometric analysis of 13,242 articles in the Education and Educational Research (E&ER) category of Web of Science (WoS) was performed. It was found that there was a significant increase in…

Students can influence their education through evaluations and as representatives in university decision-making bodies. A way to give them more power is through participation in course development as equal partners. In this study, the relationship between the outcome of a student-teacher partnership and a culture of student influence and…

A massive open online course (MOOC), Exploring Everyday Chemistry (eeDc), was delivered four times between 2017 and 2019, attracting a worldwide audience of over 15?000 learners from a wide range of backgrounds. This 4-week course was designed to show a variety of everyday applications of organic chemistry, targeted at high school students seeking…