Poinsettia ("Euphorbia pulcherrima") contains anthocyanins that dissolve in water and exhibit color changes due to changing pH. This property makes the poinsettia extract a useful acid-base indicator for pH demonstrations. When combined with common household materials, this experiment can be used as an alternative low-cost tool in…

This report offers technical guidance and encouragement for any instructor or department looking to produce valuable, high-quality Lightboard teaching videos under space and budget constraints. Lightboards were introduced in a chemical education setting around 2015 as a presentation setup that allowed the presenter to speak face-to-face to their…

The retention disparities in undergraduate degree attainment are a persistent problem within the United States, especially for Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC), first-generation and low-income students, and women (referred to as marginalized groups in STEM [MGS] hereafter) pursuing STEM degrees. The following exploratory article…

Primarily undergraduate institutions have limited resources to offer required, credit based supplemental instruction for students. Meredith College's Chemistry, Physics, and Geoscience Department revised the laboratory chemistry curriculum to incorporate chemistry concept recitations into the lab course schedule. Activities for the following…

The use of social media platforms to promote social interaction in a digital classroom is a common approach used by many educators. However, implementing such a platform is met with many challenges, the biggest being student shyness and reluctance in participating publicly. In this paper, we introduce the Supplementary Discourse (SD) model,…

Students used an Excel spreadsheet and a Jupyter notebook located at https://chemcompute.org/jupyterhub/ to generate data in lieu of face-to-face laboratory instruction during COVID-19. This communication discusses strengths and weaknesses of both exercises. First, students generated absorbance data using an Excel spreadsheet, but they were…

A lack of preparedness for college-level coursework has been shown to negatively impact student success rates in STEM. Remedial instruction has been the most widespread approach to helping at-risk students attain college-level competencies; however, studies have shown that remediation has had null or negative impacts on degree completion for…

This Communication summarizes one of the invited papers to the Select 2016 BCCE Presentations ACS CHED Committee on Computers in Chemical Education online ConfChem held from October 30 to November 22, 2016. The supplemental instruction (SI) model has come a long way from being a peer-assisted study sessions geared toward improving student…

This paper examines the impact of supplemental instruction (SI)--nonremedial workshops that support regularly scheduled courses--on four different chemistry courses: General Chemistry I and II, and Organic Chemistry I and II. Differences in how SI impacts student performance in these courses are discussed, particularly in terms of whether students…

Describes a supplementary first-year chemistry course offered to selected students also enrolled in the regularly scheduled first-year chemistry course.

Reports on the long term comparison between a group of "high risk" college freshmen who were given a supplemental chemistry course and another group who did not have the course. The supplemental course was found to produce only a short term rise in students' grades. (MR)

Describes a cooperative program between a school district and local industrial research chemists in which the chemists serve as tutors during after-school hours. Discusses the positive responses to the program in terms of increased student interest, achievement, parental feedback, and the personal gratification of the tutors. (TW)