In this work, we present an experimental approximation to the study of the phenomenon of radioactivity in secondary schools, taking as an analogy the process of release of carbon dioxide in a carbonated beverage. In this way, we intend to facilitate the approach to the mathematical formalism and to the graphical description of this phenomenon, as…

The research purpose is to analyse the self-regulation of students who use the massive open online course (MOOC) technology to learn the exact sciences. The sample included 252 students: females were 47%, and males were 53%. The average age of students was 20.08 ± 0.72. The students were divided into two groups: group 1 consisted of students who…

Experimental results are presented concerning the motion of a ball that bounces up an incline a few times then bounces back down again. The number of bounces up the incline is typically small since the speed of the ball in a direction parallel to the incline decreases rapidly, not only during each bounce but also while the ball is in the air. The…

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the course, Scientific Inquiry, significantly increased the self-efficacy beliefs of its students. According to Bandura (1977), an increase in self-efficacy could increase the likelihood that teachers implement scientific inquiry in their classrooms. I explored self-efficacy in an effort to…

Service-learning and undergraduate research experiences are high-impact practices that have become more common in the sciences, but the benefits of short-term experiences have not been thoroughly investigated. The purpose of this study was to compare within-semester gains for students in a short-term service-learning (SL) or short-term research…

Graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) are an integral part of the instructional personnel in undergraduate general chemistry courses. Professional development programs for GTAs are well-established across STEM disciplines ranging from two-day to week-long sessions, covering a wide variety of topics, ranging from pedagogy and safety standards to…

The goal of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of organic chemistry textbooks in developing student representational competence skills with eight representations of molecular structure (Lewis structures, Kekulé structures, condensed structures, electrostatic potential maps, skeletal structures, dash-wedge diagrams, Newman projections,…

This longitudinal study examines the responses of student sat two different institutions to creative exercises related to models of chemical bonding. Questions in the form of creative exercises required students to provide relevant, accurate, and distinct statements about two compounds for which they were provided only the formula and…

Using crystal structure data, site directed mutagenesis, and real-time kinetic assays, students designed, expressed, and purified engineered mutants of human insulin-degrading enzyme (IDE). Students designed their own IDE mutants following "in silico" analysis, used inverse PCR to generate mutant plasmid expression constructs, expressed…

Self-efficacy is a situational and subject-dependent construct instead of a personal characteristic, general perception, or personal competence. This study aimed to develop and validate a scale that would determine chemistry teachers' perceived self-efficacy for teaching in the laboratories. To this end, a self-efficacy perception scale for…

Does invention belong in the chemistry classroom? This article attempts to answer this question by describing how invention education first took root in a chemistry class at Ridgewood High School in Ridgewood, NJ, and then expanded to other students with diverse interests to find a solution to two worldwide problems: satisfying the need for safe…

High-voltage plasma arcs from solid-state Tesla coils were used to produce characteristic atomic emissions of various metals. The colored arcs produced were highly visible and vibrant, making for a spectacularly engaging demonstration for groups of varying sizes. The demonstration used an inexpensive solid-state Tesla coil to generate low-current,…

Raman scattering is a powerful tool for revealing the vibrations of molecules, but as a nonlinear optical phenomenon, its signals can change via mechanisms like resonance enhancement that have no direct analogue in infrared spectroscopy. In this work, complementary measurements conducted on 4-nitrophenol and its conjugate base allow students to…

Over the past several decades, science education reform has emphasized moving from content driven courses to more interactive, inquiry-based methodologies. This change has been supported by research by Chi (2009) and represented as three-dimensional learning in the Next Generation Science Standards (NRC, 2013). The typical structure of many high…

In the K-12 classrooms, science teachers are increasingly using digital interactive textbooks to improve instruction. However, limited research exists on the Title I science educators' experiences with digital interactive texts in Title I middle schools. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the perceptions of these Title I science…