The process of diffusion is intimately related to random molecular displacement and is central to many problems in chemistry. Here, we provide an intuitive derivation of the diffusion equation based on the analysis of the random trajectories of particles generated and plotted by simple MATLAB and Python scripts. The codes are very simple and…

Laboratory automation and data science are valuable new skills for all chemists, but most pedagogical activities involving automation to date have focused on upper-level coursework. Herein, we describe a combined computational and experimental lab suitable for a first-year undergraduate general chemistry course, in which these topics are…

An understanding of statistical concepts is necessary for a chemist with a complete education. Here, statistical tests were taught using the R Commander and the Factoshiny packages. These packages run on R software and have a graphical user interface (GUI), which allows students to do statistical tests quickly and easily. These packages were…

In education, space exists for a tool that valorizes generic student course evaluation formats by organizing and recapitulating students' views on the pedagogical practices to which they are exposed. Often, student opinions about a course are gathered using a general comment section that does not solicit feedback concerning specific course…

This article reports a workshop from the 2021 IUBMB/ASBMB Teaching Science with Big Data conference held virtually in June 2021 where participants learned to explore and visualize large quantities of protein PBD data using Jupyter notebooks and the Python programming language. This activity instructs participants using Jupyter notebooks, Python…

Dimensionality reduction techniques are essential in analyzing large 'omics' datasets in biochemistry and molecular biology. Principal component analysis, t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding, and uniform manifold approximation and projection are commonly used for data visualization. However, these methods can be challenging for students…

Integrating computational thinking (CT) into STEM disciplines requires secondary teachers to develop their pedagogical content knowledge of computing and content integration. Experienced teachers who choose to integrate CT in their secondary STEM courses may struggle in the same ways as novice teachers as they learn about programming and its…

The COVID-19 pandemic has swiftly forced a change in learning strategies across educational institutions, from extensively relying on in-person activities toward online teaching. It is particularly difficult to adapt courses that depend on physical equipment to be now carried out remotely. This is the case for bioinformatics, which typically…

Computational thinking in physics has many different forms, definitions, and implementations depending on the level of physics or the institution it is presented in. To better integrate computational thinking in introductory physics, we need to understand what physicists find important about computational thinking in introductory physics. We…

Computation is intertwined with essentially all aspects of physics research and is invaluable for physicists' careers. Despite its disciplinary importance, integration of computation into physics education remains a challenge and, moreover, has tended to be constructed narrowly as a route to solving physics problems. Here, we broaden Physics…

Epidemiological models have enhanced relevance because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this note, we emphasize visual tools that can be part of a learning module geared to teaching the SIR epidemiological model, suitable for advanced undergraduates or beginning graduate students in disciplines where the level of prior mathematical knowledge of…

Excluded-volume interactions are ubiquitous to modeling the average size of polymers in solution. This paper shows how simulations can be used by students to explore the emergence of mathematical scaling relations from excluded-volume interactions. Simulations provide robust visual representations of the system, and can be used to investigate a…

We introduce two new software tools, Bongojontro and Bongojontro Baksobandi, aimed at reducing the barriers to programming for native speakers of Bengali, the fifth most spoken language in the world. The highlights of these software include programming in the native language of Bengali, simpler construction of programs which is friendly for…

Recently, GeoGebra, a mathematics education software, has entered the scene of physics education; however, research on how the software can be used to support teaching and learning physics is limited and scattered. The aim of this article is to present a review of the current literature on how GeoGebra can be used to support physics education in…

This paper details a digital technology solution to a problem that arose during a science lesson in an early years class. The teacher used the opportunity to enable the children to apply their knowledge and skills of a software application developed in a recent ICT class. Using the age-appropriate app, the students could communicate their learning…