Computer quiz games are introduced to improve teaching and learning in a freshman engineering chemistry course in an English-as-a-second-language (ESL) environment. These quiz games are developed and implemented as supplemental and augmentative tools to enhance traditionally delivered lectures. The paper shows an increase in students' motivation…

Formative assessment is a crucial element of teaching and learning which allows students to identify challenging course concepts and enables educators to assess the effectiveness of their teaching strategies. Web-based student response systems have gained popularity for their ability to provide instant feedback to students and instructors while…

The end of the semester has any number of regular milestones for teachers, among them the receipt of student evaluations of teaching. Particularly for those who teach large course sections, the anticipated experience of reading evaluations is often bemusement. Frequently, there are significant numbers of student comments on both "sides"…

In this study, we investigated the impact of collaborative learning practices on the academic success of first generation college (FGC) students in one section of a general chemistry course. We implemented group problem solving and group quizzes during the lecture sessions of General Chemistry 1. Our focus was on understanding how FGC students…

Higher education constantly has to adapt to meet the changing needs of our students. One of the challenges instructors have faced when delivering online courses is the assessment integrity. This issue was highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced educators to quickly convert traditional in-person courses to online versions of the…

In this laboratory experiment, students evaluated three silver(I) complexes as potential additives for dental adhesives based on bacterial growth inhibition, heat stability, water insolubility, and cost-effectiveness. Each student prepared and analyzed a cyanoxime ligand and its corresponding silver(I) complex. Students characterized the…

The knowledge of the mechanical properties of polymers and other materials is essential for several tasks in the field of materials science, like component design and material development. The tensile test is one method of determining many of the material's most defining mechanical characteristics. However, the teaching of laboratory experiments…

In the field of education, ChatGPT has become a topic of debate for its usefulness as a learning tool. This article focuses on non-science majors' (n = 29) perceptions of a ChatGPT enabled final exam, where, prior to the exam, students wrote papers on science and sustainability and, during the final exam, students were asked to compare their paper…

Two out-of-class formative assessments that have been developed and used in a General, Organic, and Biochemistry course are reported herein. The first assessment, called Daily Feedback, used the collaborative word processor, Google Docs. This assessment required students to place topics/objectives in one of three categories based on their level of…

Robust efforts to improve equity, access, and inclusion are necessary in STEM gateway courses at the undergraduate level. Here, we describe an ongoing course transformation of an extended general chemistry sequence at a large, flagship, research-intensive institution. This course enrolls a diverse group of students who have limited preparation in…

General safety and chemical training of undergraduate students is typically held at the first-year level. In this technology report, we propose a flexible strategy to improve students' general knowledge of safety for a second-year inorganic chemistry laboratory. The strategy is composed of an online interactive revision approach through the…

Organic Fanatic is a free-of-charge quiz-based mobile application game that encourages students to test their abilities and enhance their learning of organic structure and reactivity through a fun, arcade-style interface. Students can attempt a total of 270 multiple choice questions, choosing from a possible 1080 associated answers that can be…

Can online learning strategies in general chemistry work as well as learning in an on-site classroom? As the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions eased in 2022, a cohort of first-year Chemistry majors took a general chemistry lecture course in hybrid mode: learning activities were undertaken online using a flipped classroom approach, while formal…

Due to the COVID pandemic, the introductory course on organic chemistry was developed and conducted as an online course. To ensure methodical variety in this course, educational games and quizzes have been developed, used, and evaluated. The attendance of the course, and therefore also the use of the quizzes and games, was voluntary. The quizzes'…

Effective assessment is an extremely important area of chemistry education. Typically tests measure students' knowledge of critical thinking skills, chemistry vocabulary, and application of concepts from one chapter to another. While it is relatively straightforward to measure concepts such as chemical vocabulary and algorithmic problem solving…