The rise of virtual and online education in recent years has led to the development and popularization of many online tools, notably three-dimensional (3D) models and augmented reality (AR), for visualizing various structures in chemical sciences. The majority of the developed tools focus on either small molecules or biological systems, as…

This study investigated students' meaning-making of polymeric concepts during modelling and discuss students' creation of visible representations in chemistry. The analysis combines a phenomenographic and social semiotic approach and leads to the finding and description of 21 different meaning-making processes. We refer to meaning-making as the…

Human cadaveric prosections are a traditional, effective, and highly appreciated modality of anatomy learning. Plastic models are an alternative teaching modality, though few studies examine their effectiveness in learning of upper limb musculoskeletal anatomy. The purpose of this study is to investigate which modality is associated with a better…

We designed a hands-on laboratory exercise to demonstrate why injecting an aqueous polymer solution into an oil reservoir (commonly known as "polymer flooding") enhances oil production. Students are split into three groups of two to three. Each group is assigned to a packed Hele-Shaw cell pre-saturated with oil, our laboratory model of…

Environmental issues can serve as a marvelous framework for high-level student analysis of critical scientific and social concerns. We describe a series of activities and discussions that motivate students to explore environmentalism, sustainable development, carbon offsets, and related ideas with an engaged learning format that helps students to…

This paper describes the development and evaluation of a secondary school lesson plan for chemistry education on the topic Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). The lessons focus both on the chemistry of plastics and on learning about the societal evaluation of competing, chemistry-based industrial products. A specific teaching method was…

Many first year students of anatomy and physiology courses demonstrate an inability to self-regulate their learning. To help students increase their awareness of their own learning in a first year undergraduate anatomy course, we piloted an exercise that incorporated the processes of (1) active learning: drawing and plasticine modeling and (2)…

Random-climb models enable undergraduate chemistry students to visualize polymer molecules, quantify their configurational properties, and relate molecular structure to a variety of physical properties. The model could serve as an introduction to more elaborate models of polymer molecules and could help in learning topics such as lattice models of…

THE OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY WERE TO COMPARE EDUCATIONAL TOYS AND THREE-DIMENSIONAL NONPRODUCING MOCKUPS WITH COMMERCIAL PLASTICS PROCESSING EQUIPMENT FOR RELATIVE EFFECTIVENESS OF TEACHING PLASTIC CONCEPTS, AND TO COMPARE THE RELATIVE EFFECTIVENESS OF THESE TWO METHODS IN DEVELOPING MANUAL DEXTERITY. TREATMENT A (EDUCATIONAL TOYS AND MOCKUPS) WAS…

The "Central Dogma" of genetics states that one gene, located in a DNA molecule, is ultimately translated into one protein. As important as this idea is, many teachers shy away from teaching the actual mechanism of gene translation, and many students find the concepts abstract and inaccessible. This article describes a unit, called Genetics…