In recent years, Animal Science demographics have been shifting from many students having an abundance of animal experience towards a majority of students having little to no prior animal experience. It's important to note this demographic shift and to consider how this shift could be impacting student mental health. Throughout a semester long…

Metacognition includes the processes that learners use to plan, monitor, and assess their learning and is tied to academic performance and growth-oriented attitudes toward learning. Learning anatomy presents challenges to learners at all levels, and for many, necessitates a change in learning strategies and metacognitive awareness. We sought to…

Theories of self-regulated learning suggest a positive link between knowledge monitoring accuracy (the ability to predict test performance) and performance on tests. Put differently, students who accurately monitor their knowledge of course content more efficiently regulate study of course materials. However, a plethora of literature indicates…

We created a novel laboratory experience where undergraduate students explore the techniques used to study protein misfolding, unfolding, and aggregation. Despite the importance of protein misfolding and aggregation diseases, protein unfolding is not typically explored in undergraduate biochemistry laboratory classes. Yeast alcohol dehydrogenase…

Objective: The current study examined the extent to which pandemic-specific psychological distress symptoms and perceived stress were associated with sleep difficulties among college students. Participants: Participants included 203 full-time undergraduates from a medium-sized university located in the U.S. Methods: A survey was administered…

Adults learning a new language tend to judge unconventional utterances more leniently than fluent speakers do; ratings on acceptable utterances, however, tend to align more closely with fluent speakers. This asymmetry raises a question as to whether unconventional utterances can be statistically preempted by conventional utterances for adult…

A laboratory experiment has been designed for teaching laboratories aimed at training students in the basics of spectroscopy in junior and senior level undergraduate chemistry courses. Despite the ubiquity of light-based tools in modern science, students often find it difficult to comprehend light and light-matter interactions. A portable…

Spectroscopy is an integral part of chemical research, and the operation of any spectroscopic instrument is critical in chemical education. This study presents a low-cost, do-it-yourself (DIY) style spectrophotometer system that can be adapted for UV--vis spectrophotometry, fluorimetry, and atomic emission spectroscopy applications. The DIY system…

Instructors traditionally lecture on new content before providing practice problems, but learning is often superficial. Exploratory learning before instruction deepens conceptual understanding by giving students a novel activity to explore before direct instruction. We examined how increasing the salience of contrasting cases in exploration versus…

The Homeostasis Concept Inventory (HCI) is a validated instrument for measuring students' knowledge of homeostasis. It is comprised of 20 multiple-choice questions covering key components of the previously validated Homeostasis Conceptual Framework (HCF). In this paper, we present the first multi-institutional study of the impact of physiology…

Different types of test items influence students' test anxiety, and physiological measures such as heart rate provide a means of measuring this anxiety. This study aimed to explore the connection between test anxiety and examination item formats. It centered on 20 junior university students in Western Türkiye. The research monitored students'…

Introduction: An innovative undergraduate helping skills course where students learn, practice, and apply a problem management model with a peer volunteer on a non-clinical issue across three supervised helping meetings is presented. Statement of the Problem: Undergraduate helping skill courses are typically offered as in-class role-plays. This…

Interest in the gender gap in the physical sciences has been ongoing for a number of years. This study aimed to explore differences in gender based on self-perception. The use of a post-examination survey was used to examine the role of gender in grade perception in chemistry courses over a several-year period. This included courses for…

Some researchers have theorized that emotions while reading science texts influence learning in a wholistic way, such that overall positive or negative affect leads to different learning outcomes. Other researchers have envisioned that emotions fluctuate during reading such that the degree of cycling impacts the learning outcomes. In this study,…

There is a well recognised desire to encourage enterprise and entrepreneurial thinking in university students, however core or mandatory provision has the potential to dilute the enthusiasm or engagement in enterprise. This paper reflects on the choice to offer optional (elective) enterprise modules to STEM students at Undergraduate (level 6) and…