This study explores the design and delivery of two gamified, virtual laboratories, created to replace or compliment the compulsory third-semester university chemistry laboratories. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, laboratory experiments needed to be adapted to suit both on- and off-campus students. Here, we include detailed guidelines on how to…

Research has shown that the use of practical examples in undergraduate education promotes the retention of historically underrepresented students in STEM majors and lowers achievement gaps within courses. Since many students of color and women aspire toward careers in healthcare and the pharmaceutical industry, efforts to incorporate medicinal…

Assumptions about the feasibility of teaching chemistry laboratories online have been challenged by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. We argue that, despite the fact that pandemic social distancing restrictions will be eventually eliminated, the development of quality digital laboratory resources must continue to receive attention from the chemistry…

Chemical reasoning takes many forms. The focus in this paper is on a reasoning process that facilitates using experimental evidence to make connections between macroscopic and submicroscopic domains, which we will refer to as "creating representation." It is a particular type of reasoning that has played a critical role in chemistry,…

With the growing attention to the effective use of social network analysis in explaining student learning in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education, the authors explore why college students share knowledge and how they achieve their learning in a laboratory class. In particular, the authors investigate how the social…

We examined the perceived adequacy and effectiveness of BIO 0475, Advanced Human Dissection, in preparing undergraduate students for the transition into gross anatomy (or equivalent) during their first year of professional school. A 16-item, electronic survey was distributed to course graduates (n=18) that evaluated (1) the importance of BIO 0475…

Few realized the extent of disruption that the COVID-19 global pandemic would impose upon higher anatomical education. While many institutions were obliged to adopt a fully-remote online model, the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine strove to develop a curriculum that would allow medical students to receive an…

As surgical procedures continue to be more complex, the need for more effective training in anatomy has increased. The study of anatomy plays a significant role in the understanding of the human body as well as in basic and advanced clinical training. Among the different cadaver models, fresh frozen cadavers (FFCs) are known for their realistic…

The global positioning system (GPS) must be familiar to every user of a smartphone as a way to locate one's position on Earth to within several meters. The constellation of orbiting atomic clocks equipped with radio transmitters allows receivers on Earth to determine their own position by measuring the travel times of radio signals from multiple…

Cancer databases collect original cancer studies and patient clinical information into one site that allows for global analysis. While many courses focus on cancer, few utilize these powerful cancer databases. Our goal was to create a lab experience in which students could explore original cancer study databases, looking at the expression and…

Questions are an important means by which students actively participate in and exercise some control over the moment-to-moment focus of writing center conferences. Through quantitative and qualitative analysis of student questions in 35 writing center conferences, we examined the frequency and type of students' questions, finding no differences…

The Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic posed challenges for laboratory-based courses. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore students' experiences, as related to engagement, in a HyFlex laboratory course that was designed for on-campus and online students to learn together. The research questions were: 1. What are the students'…

This article presents findings from an IRB-approved study about writing center social media use and nonuse using survey data keyed to five factors: reasons for nonuse; purposes for use; platforms used; approaches to use that consider platforms and target audiences; and recommendations to other writing centers to use or not use social media. While…

The construct of Computational Thinking (CT) first emerged to describe problem solving in the context of computing environments, but it has expanded to serve as a set of practices that can be applied across disciplines with or without the use of computers. We recorded students' work during two lab sessions in an undergraduate, biology-engineering…

In the past few decades, chemistry has evolved to interact with various disciplines to synergistically help tackle global challenges. This, in turn, requires that newer generations of chemistry students are trained to be more flexible in accepting and coordinating new concepts. In this experiment, pineapple was used as a key model to allow for the…