Biochemistry is becoming increasingly crucial for undergraduates majoring in biology, chemistry, agriculture, and medicine. In recent years, much research has been carried out on promoting this course's teaching outcomes. However, the knowledge structure of undergraduate biochemistry teaching research has yet to be formed. Here, 715 validated…

Rock and mineral labs are fundamental in traditional introductory geology courses. Successful implementation of these lab activities provides students opportunities to apply content knowledge. Inquiry-based instruction may be one way to increase student success. Prior examination of published STEM labs indicates that geology labs, particularly…

Teaching engineering students how to effectively communicate using the language, representations, and tools specific to their discipline is important to their development as practitioners in their respective fields. This article describes a literature review of learning activities intended to teach crystal structure and crystallography and…

We review the literature, from 2006 to 2020, focused on the teaching and learning of chemical bonding. The studies included in our review (48 studies set in 19 different countries overall) involved secondary and postsecondary students as well as K-12 teachers and university faculty. We synthesize these studies' findings to provide implications for…

Understanding organic reaction mechanisms can be a challenging task for many undergraduate students, particularly those who are nonchemistry majors, despite the fact that organic chemistry is a mandatory course for numerous science and engineering undergraduate programs. The selectivity of a reaction is largely determined by the distribution and…

The preparation gap [Salehi et al., Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 15, 020114 (2019)] refers to gaps in students' prior knowledge that can negatively affect their learning as they engage in introductory physics courses. To better characterize the gap, the current study distinguished the impact of various prior knowledge components on learning gains.…

The sciences are a complex and especially demanding area of study for undergraduate students, particularly in the earlier years, which are a critical period of adaptation to a new educational stage. The use of new teaching models is encouraged to improve their learning, such as flipped classroom (FC), which pursues more meaningful and effective…

Introductory biology courses at most colleges and universities have two components: a lecture and a lab. However, for students who are not majoring in biology and taking the introductory course as part of their general education requirements, the distinct role of the lab has not been clearly articulated. We performed an online modified-Delphi…

Plant awareness disparity (PAD, formerly plant blindness) is the tendency not to notice plants in one's environment, which leads to the perspective that plants are unimportant. In this paper, we explore how plants and animals are represented in introductory biology textbooks to determine if these texts are contributing to PAD in undergraduate…

Quantum mechanics is an integral course for physics students. An understanding of quantum concepts is imperative for enrollment in physics graduate programs, participating in research within physics fields, and employment with companies developing quantum technologies. This study analyzes 188 U.S. research-intensive institutions' course catalogs…

Second-semester biochemistry students at two primarily undergraduate institutions, the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, and the State University of New York College at Cortland, worked on a collaborative, semester-long project that resulted in the production of bioinfographics focused on metabolic pathways. Students were divided…

Due to a growing awareness of environmental issues, green chemistry concepts are increasingly being incorporated into the undergraduate organic chemistry lecture and laboratory component. This minireview summarizes environmentally friendly organic chemistry experiments suitable for undergraduate laboratories. Whenever feasible, LD[subscript 50]…

For decades, biology education researchers have made efforts towards engaging undergraduate students in the process of science and assisting students in their development of deep approaches to learning in the field. Research indicates that students who adopt deep approaches or study strategies make meaningful connections with course material and…

Science and drawing have been paired for hundreds of years, and this synergy is still prevalent in research investigating the role of drawing for developing and assessing understanding. However, despite research at the primary and secondary levels of education, there is limited research on whether drawing facilitates learning at the undergraduate…

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) are being increasingly implemented to broaden the opportunities for undergraduate students to engage in authentic research across STEM disciplines including chemistry. The present review synthesizes the literature on chemistry CUREs, encompassing 68 articles published between 2016 and 2022…