Lakes are artists' pigments made from colorants bound to an inert substrate, usually hydrated aluminum oxide. Before the late 19th century, lakes were made from natural pigments extracted from plants and insects, extracted either directly from the dyestuff or indirectly from waste materials generated in the manufacture of dyed textiles. The first…

Although most students in nonmajor biology courses will not enter careers in science, they will need a working understanding of biology and how it relates to their lives to make informed decisions on important topics that will affect their lives, including food, environment, energy, and health. This research seeks to improve on nonmajors'…

A perennial goal of science educators is to develop functional scientific literacy in their students, especially those who will not become professional scientists. This article provides an example of implementing a socioscientific issues approach in an undergraduate environmental science course that enables students to develop the knowledge,…

Math anxiety involves moderate to extreme fear, anxiety, and occasionally physical pain associated with anticipating or performing mathematical tasks. High levels of math anxiety have been tied to students taking lower levels of math and choosing less quantitatively challenging courses and careers. In a small geoscience program in a primarily…

Colleges throughout the United States typically expect their students to take at least one course in the sciences to fulfill liberal studies curriculum requirements. For nonscience majors, the choice of science class can include introductory chemistry, introductory biology, and astronomy, among others. Based upon interactions both in and out of…

A rudimentary level of scientific literacy is necessary in the general public. At the undergraduate level, this literacy can be achieved through general education courses offered in areas of natural sciences. Over the past several years, practical courses have been developed to make the teaching of chemistry concepts in the laboratory more…

To increase student interest and engagement in introductory chemistry courses for non-science majors, we incorporated a children's book project based on the chemistry discussed in class. Students were given agency in topic, target age range, and book format to encourage creativity, to integrate student interest and major, and to challenge…

The goals of nonmajor science education are to improve scientific literacy and produce pro-science attitudes. Together, these goals are expected to improve an individual's ability to make evidence-based decisions based on newer understandings of the natural world as well as developing technologies. In a post-COVID-19 world, public understanding of…

Non-science majors often lack motivation to take science courses required for their graduation, because these courses are usually taught in a lecture format and are disconnected from their everyday life and needs related to future careers. This two-phase action research, utilizing argumentative writing (AW) supported with online simulation, was…

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) demonstrate success in facilitating pathways for STEM graduates into the STEM workforce, and this phenomenon has been widely documented (Gasman & Nguyen, 2014; Upton & Tanenbaum, 2014; Clewell et al., 2016). Although thematic analysis of the mission statements of HBCUs at the…

In this work we focus on neurodiversity, a recently defined facet of diversity. Chemical education is in its early stages of recognizing the value that neurodiversity brings to the field. After an overview of current terminology, we discuss general challenges that neurodivergent students face in chemistry classes. To create an inclusive class…

A growing body of literature focusing on undergraduate biology education calls for students to engage in the ways of thinking, feeling, and doing that reflect those in which biologists engage. Such reform efforts suggest that learning is best fostered when students engage in practices, concepts, and scientific reasoning as they endeavor to explain…

This article describes a project focused on identifying science instructors' conceptions of science literacy and using these conceptions to develop a brief science literacy student self-assessment (SCILIT). We present the rationale and process we used to elicit instructors' conceptions of science literacy, crafted in a meaningful way with input by…

In our technology driven world today, it is extremely important to increase the science literacy of our non-science majors. At Stockton University, this goal is attempted to be accomplished through our General Studies courses. This paper describes a lab-based course in the General Studies curriculum, 'The Science of Ice Cream'. At Stockton…

National efforts to reform undergraduate education have highlighted the need to relate abstract concepts in biology to real-world examples, especially for non-majors who may undervalue scientific processes. We therefore decided to introduce a module titled "Climate Change, Sustainable Practices and Plastic Pollution," utilizing such…