A novel teaching approach is aimed at elucidating the concept of bond enthalpy for general chemistry students. Through the integration of a hands-on candy pulling activity, students in a large lecture class were provided a tangible experience to explore bond strengths using rope candy and a luggage scale. Feedback from students indicated a clear…

The COVID-19 pandemic affected a large range of in-person education activities in Colombia. This created great limitations in academic performance for students with reduced access to communication technologies and deepened the educational gaps in the country. This was particularly true for sciences such as biochemistry. In Colombia, molecular…

Metabolism is always a challenging topic in biochemistry. In our project, a courseware called "Metabolism Metro" was developed. "Metabolism Metro" is a self-learning tool which aims to facilitate students learning of metabolic pathways in an interactive and easy-to-understand manner. The courseware includes both pre-class and…

We present two simple classroom exercises designed to explain challenging concepts in conformation for students beginning organic chemistry. These macroscopic demonstrations serve as analogies to bridge students' understanding of flat two-dimensional drawings to real three-dimensional molecules. In the first demonstration, an apple is drawn from…

The experimental investigation of Newton's law of universal gravitation requires expensive and sensitive equipment. Therefore, it is often not possible to conduct such an experiment within a typical physics class. An alternative is to investigate the universal gravitation law by using simulations. In this paper, we are presenting such an augmented…

Learning endocrine physiology can be challenging. Some physiological concepts are abstract, making the process of learning more difficult for students. The comprehension of basic concepts, such as chemical hormone classification, is essential to understand the differences in synthesis, secretion, transport, and mechanism of action of hormones. To…

Many studies have characterized students' difficulties in understanding and reasoning about scientific mechanisms. Some of those studies have drawn implications on teaching mechanisms and how to guide students while reasoning mechanistically. In this theoretical article, I claim that one component that has not garnered much attention in the…

"Productive Uncertainty in Science Education" provides the support that teachers and students need for more complex science investigations. Science is driven by the need to manage uncertainty--uncertainty about how to explain the world, but also how to represent the world in an investigation, what to measure, and how to convince peers to…

Einstein's derivation of special relativity theory (SRT), based on hypothetical reasoning and thought experiments, is regarded as a prime example of physics theory development. In secondary education, the introduction of SRT could provide a great opportunity for students to engage in physics theorizing, but this opportunity is largely being missed…

We describe an educational activity that can be completed with mobile media devices in order to understand the working principle of a pair of tuning forks, from the Historical Collection of Physics Instruments of the University of Palermo, and how they were used to explain acoustic interference and beats with the Lissajous optical method. This…

Students tend to think of their science courses as isolated and unrelated to each other, making it difficult for them to see connections across disciplines. In addition, many existing science assessments target rote memorization and algorithmic problem-solving skills. Here, we describe the development, implementation, and evaluation of an activity…

Biochemistry and molecular biology students are asked to understand and analyze the structures of small molecules and complex three-dimensional (3D) macromolecules. However, most tools to help students learn molecular visualization skills are limited to two-dimensional (2D) images on screens and in textbooks. The virtual reality (VR) App Nanome,…

Physically active learning is considered to enhance learning and additionally addresses health goals like increasing activity levels and reducing obesity. However, physically active learning has rarely been applied to science and engineering learning, or utilized with younger learners (e.g under sevens). This article describes a physically active…

This article presents an empirical study of the use of Indigenous knowledge of the "Bulan" kite to teach the concept of "equilibrium" among Muslim students (n = 109 students) in private Islamic schools (in the southern part of Thailand). The design of the culturally responsive teaching comprising three lessons was guided by the…

Ludic-didactic material has systematically been proven to be a useful tool that enhances teaching and learning processes, at practically any educational level by reducing the stress level of students and creating a feeling of team spirit and trust. In chemistry courses, significant efforts have been made to improve the learning of intermolecular…