This qualitative case study delved into students' understanding and positioning while they participated in solving an authentic, conceptually-based problem in a high-school chemistry class. Verbal and nonverbal cues, particularly gestures, offered broader awareness of students' engagement in sensemaking during the learning experience. The…

Experimental courses for undergraduate students majoring in biochemistry or related subjects often do not provide students with systematic and research-based experiences. To help students develop abilities related to laboratory techniques, data analysis, and systematic thought in biology, we performed an exploratory program that employs…

This paper summarizes a project seminar in analytical chemistry that includes a method comparison approach and collaborative learning. In this project seminar, 12 students worked in four groups, each of which focused on one method for quantitative element analysis, including flame atomic absorption spectroscopy, inductively coupled plasma mass…

A Sonogashira experiment was transformed into a problem-based learning platform for third-year undergraduate students. Given a target that could be synthesized in a single step, students worked in groups to investigate which method was the best for large-scale production. Through this practical scenario, students learn to conduct a literature…

Laboratory courses are often designed using step-by-step protocols which encourage students to conduct experiments without thinking about what they are doing or why they are doing it. Such course design limits the growth of our students as scientists and can make it more difficult for a student to transition to the expectations of a research…

One of the most mystifying products on the market for people at any age is the glow stick: a plastic tube that, when snapped, creates a flood of bright, brilliantly colored light without the use of electricity or significant production of heat. In this case, the chemiluminescence reaction also provides an exciting phenomenon through which we can…

In our upper-level undergraduate laboratory course in organic chemistry we focus on a research-oriented task in a context-based and problem-based learning approach. The course starts with a preliminary training period where the students learn how to safely and independently perform synthesis and purification procedures and to operate the most…

This study focuses on the design of a learning program to introduce complexometric titration as a method for determining water hardness in a high school chemistry laboratory. Students are introduced to the different properties and reactions of hard water in a stepwise manner so that they gain the necessary chemical knowledge and conceptual…

Young people now must compete in a global, knowledge-based, innovation-centered economy; they must acquire not just academic knowledge, but also character attributes such as intrinsic motivation, persistence, and flexibility. To accomplish these ambitious goals, the National Research Council (2012) of the United States recommends the use of…

Doing science as explorers, students observe, wonder and question the unknown, stretching their experience. To engage students as explorers depends on their safety in expressing uncertainty and taking risks. I create these conditions in my university seminar by employing critical exploration in the classroom, a pedagogy developed by Eleanor…

A laboratory experiment is described in which students synthesize a variety of cationic gemini surfactants and analyze their efficacy as fabric softeners. Students perform a simple organic synthesis reaction and two analytical tests (one qualitative and one quantitative), and use the class data to assess the synthesized products. The experiment…

The current review examined modeling literature in top science education journals to better understand the pedagogical functions of modeling instruction reported over the last decade. Additionally, the review sought to understand the extent to which different modeling pedagogies were employed, the discursive acts that were identified as important,…

We selected diabetes mellitus for this laboratory exercise to provide students with an explicit model for scientific research concerning the association between the R230C polymorphism and susceptibility to type 2 diabetes mellitus, which is highly prevalent in the Mexican population. We used a collaborative project-based learning to engage…

The ability to design appropriate experiments in order to interrogate a research question is an important skill for any scientist. The present article describes an interactive lecture-based activity centred around a comparison of two contrasting approaches to investigation of the question "Can you smell fear?" A poorly designed…

A series of experiments based on problem-solving and collaborative-learning pedagogies are described that encourage students to interpret results and draw conclusions from data. Different approaches including parallel library synthesis, solvent variation, and leaving group variation are used to study a nucleophilic aromatic substitution of…