As understanding of STEM education pedagogy deepens, traditional lecture-based courses evolve to include new philosophies, such as active learning, project-based learning, and inquiry-based learning (IBL). Additionally, hands-on educational experiences at the early stages of an undergraduate program are seminal in propelling students into the…

Inquiry-based course experiences provide a scalable and equitable way to engage students in research. In this study, we describe how we introduced inquiry-based experiences to ten lower-division and upper-division courses across the biology curriculum at a regionally comprehensive public university serving the diverse population in a major…

Future needs and challenges, especially in complex real-world problem-solving, require education to equip individuals with quality skills. Inquiry-based learning that integrates socio-scientific issues (SSI) can significantly develop students' problem-solving skills. This study aims to test the effects of the Socio-Scientific Real-world Inquiry…

Argumentation skills are important for students to analyze and evaluate critical information, especially in complex science issues. Socio-Scientific Real-world Inquiry [SSRI] learning helps students develop deep scientific understanding and the ability to build evidence-based arguments in a real context. This study aimed to examine the…

In this study, students' understanding of some important features of competitive elimination and substitution reactions of alcohols was examined based on their participation in a guided inquiry activity of two organic laboratory experiments: the dehydration of cyclohexanol and the conversion of tert-butyl alcohol into tert-butyl chloride. Students…

Previous research has shown that in prehigher education stages, inquiry-based teaching is not sufficient for forming a mature understanding of the nature of science (NOS). However, there is relatively little research conducted on colleges. Inquiry-based teaching should not overlook cognitive frameworks, as students' limited scientific reasoning…

This study sought to develop and evaluate an online module based on inquiry learning with digital laboratories, which was intended to address students' misconceptions in a science domain. In a quasi-experimental design, 171 first-year students in a higher education introductory physics course on circular motion were as their existing groups…

The field of biosensors is a burgeoning area of research and employs a large number of chemistry graduates. The impact of strip tests in detecting coronavirus was palpable during the recent COVID-19 pandemic and will further drive the biosensor industry. Despite their common usage, a coherent introduction to the basics of sensing remains missing…

Scanning probe microscopy such as atomic force microscopy has become increasingly integrated and relevant in undergraduate laboratory investigations. As the "hands and eyes of the nanoworld", atomic force microscopes (AFMs) continue to be used to innovate the nanowriting process for data storage and in the exploration of novel materials…

This undergraduate laboratory experiment is designed for first-year general chemistry students with the goal of introducing the brilliant colors and magnetic properties of transition metal complexes within a bioinorganic/cell biology context. In the first laboratory period, a coordination complex formed from ferric chloride and maltol is…

The Beer-Lambert law is a core spectroscopic relationship widely used across the undergraduate chemistry curriculum and beyond. The derivation of this model is a common topic for upper-level chemistry courses. But, due to its abstract nature, this derivation can often seem like a mathematical exercise detached from the molecular origins of…

There has been dramatic growth in interest and research regarding organic photochromism in recent decades. Despite this, the topic is seldom addressed in the undergraduate chemistry curriculum. Herein, we present a straightforward and robust experiment for the second semester organic chemistry laboratory curriculum which combines multistep…

This communication describes an activity where upper-level chemistry students explore the determinability of rate constant values without concentration dependences (k[subscript true]) related to a solvent-ligand exchange in a transition metal carbonyl complex. By performing a series of multivariable linear regression (MVLR) analyses of…

This research developed learning activities for students to explore and connect the concepts of acid-base titration, equivalence points, pK[subscript a], and molar absorption coefficients. Polyphenolic compounds consisting of p-coumaric acid (CMA), caffeic acid (CFA), and 3,4,5-trihydroxycinnamic acid (3,4,5-THCA) were selected as study models.…

Learning in asynchronous online environments has gained importance over the last several decades, and educational environment shifts from the COVID-19 pandemic appear to have increased this need. Science educators and students need information about which approaches work in the asynchronous environment where informal feedback tends to be reduced,…