Solving organic chemistry reactions requires reasoning with multiple concepts and data (i.e., multivariate reasoning). However, studies have reported that organic chemistry students typically demonstrate univariate reasoning. Case comparisons, where students compare two or more tasks, have been reported to support students' multivariate reasoning.…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present the results of measuring a sample of engineering students' perceived achievement of complex thinking at different stages of their professional training. This study intended to analyze and predict the differences in the self-perception of achieved complex thinking competency by gender, semester,…

Physics experts and students commonly use a variety of representations when working with partial derivatives, including symbols, graphs, and words. One especially powerful representation is the contour graph. In open-ended problem-solving interviews with nine upper-division physics students, we asked students to determine derivatives from contour…

Colleges are becoming increasingly diverse, including strengthening representation of students with disabilities in STEM (Science, Teaching, Engineering, and Math) fields; however, representation still lags behind national trends. To adapt to this changing demographic and improve representation, STEM college professors must be prepared to grant…

Productive problem solving, concept construction, and sense making occur through the core process of abstraction. Although the capacity for domain-general abstraction is developed at a young age, the role of abstraction in increasingly complex and disciplinary environments, such as those encountered in undergraduate STEM education, is not well…

Problem solving is a critical skill in many disciplines but is often a challenge for students to learn. To examine the processes both students and experts undertake to solve constructed-response problems in genetics, we collected the written step-by-step procedures individuals used to solve problems in four different content areas. We developed a…

With the benefits of low cost, energy efficiency, and environmental protection, photocatalytic hydrogen production is considered to be the most promising technology for the development of a clean and sustainable society. However, the utilization of photocatalytically generated hydrogen is not very common yet. Therefore, tertiary education urgently…

Question-asking is a necessary step towards formulating hypotheses, making decisions, and solving problems, and is Practice #1 in the Next Generation Science Standards. To improve question-asking, educators and researchers need a way to categorize and evaluate students' questions, so as to judge whether an intervention has been effective. We…

IUPAC nomenclature competence (INC)--defined as the ability to name chemical structures using IUPAC rules and draw structures from IUPAC names--is considered a foundational skill in the training of professional chemists. For students of non-European language background, the challenge of acquiring INC is often complicated by the fact that IUPAC…

We reported a redesign of a physical chemistry laboratory course (CHEM 166) for our chemistry majors at the University of Vermont carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic. We started to teach this course after a curriculum reform, which split an upper-division undergraduate laboratory course into physical and analytical chemistry laboratories. To…

Given student familiarity with electronic cigarettes (e-cigs), this lab uses a student-built smoke collection apparatus to collect e-cig vapors to teach students about gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Students in a second semester, introductory organic chemistry course spent 1 week collecting e-cig vapors and 1 week qualitatively…

The objective of this work was to evaluate the implementation of a metavisual strategy for students to revise and self-regulate concepts arising in a study of a chemical reaction between ions. For this purpose, two chemistry education undergraduate students at a Brazilian public university carried out an investigative activity, involving…

The need to develop clean-energy storage systems, harvesting technologies, and new functional materials are but a few of the many contemporary challenges in the domain of science today. To address these challenges, problem solving has become a key skill of the 21st century. It is generally documented, however, that experts and students differ in…

This study aims to examine the effects of engineering design-based science teaching (EDBST) on classroom teacher candidates' decision-making skills, scientific creativity and engineering design-based process skills. The random design of the quantitative approach with a pretest-posttest control group was used in the study. The study group consists…

A considerable body of research shows that individuals who demonstrate a wide variety of metacognitive skills perform better on scientific problem solving. We developed a way of implementing homework in an undergraduate physics course to promote metacognitive skills. This novel homework design includes both an individual and a team phase and was…