In large undergraduate science courses, instructors often invite students to voluntarily answer questions (VANQ) in front of the class for a variety of pedagogical reasons. However, it is unclear what drives instructor decisions to use this practice. We conducted exploratory interviews with 21 college science instructors from a research-intensive…

Exam anxiety has been well-documented to reduce student performance in undergraduate biology courses, especially for students from marginalized groups, which can contribute to achievement gaps. Our exploratory study surveyed 61 undergraduate biology students to better understand how exams affect their anxiety levels, focusing on the impact of exam…

ChatGPT and other large language models (LLMs) have the potential to significantly disrupt common educational practices and assessments, given their capability to quickly generate human-like text in response to user prompts. LLMs GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 have been tested against many standardized and high-stakes assessment materials (e.g. SAT, Uniform…

Writing is a critical skill for modern science, enabling collaboration, scientific discourse, public outreach, and more. Accordingly, it is important to consider how physicists and astronomers are trained to write. This study aims to understand the landscape of science writing education, specifically in physics and astronomy, in higher education…

Natural sciences can be difficult to grasp because physical and chemical phenomena can take place across time and length scales that are beyond the reach of human perception. This problem is particularly true for students attempting to learn about microfluidics, a discipline that involves intricate engineering methods and fluid phenomena that are…

Students quantified the protein content in beer, milk, powdered milk, and whey protein using the Bradford assay. The assay was carried out using absorbance measured at 595 nm (standard method) and 96-well-plate images (proposed method). They built analytical curves using bovine serum albumin (BSA) and casein and determined that protein type…

Discussions on decolonizing the curriculum are common in Humanities and Social Science Faculties but still rare in the Physical Sciences. In this commentary, we describe the work we have conducted to begin decolonizing and diversifying our undergraduate chemistry curriculum. We also discuss what it means to decolonize chemistry and reflect on why…

A time- and cost-effective strategy aimed at increasing awareness of diversity, equity, inclusion, respect (DEIR), safety, and other issues within a typical graduate program is described. Using a brief portion of time (up to [approximately]10 min) at the commencement of each weekly departmental colloquium event, graduate students under faculty…

Recently I took a walk through the physics demonstration room at Kenyon College, where I first started teaching in 1964. On an upper shelf was the little home-built apparatus in Fig. 1. This was used for one of two short single-concept films that I made in the 1970s. Both "The Magnus Effect" and "Optical Barrier Penetration"…

A solenoid is a coil wound many times on a cylinder of length greater than its diameter. Solenoids are mainly used as electromagnets, because a magnetic field is formed when current flows through a solenoid. The solenoid described in secondary school and university textbooks is a single-layered solenoid. Further, textbooks and papers focusing on…

The purpose of this study was to assess and describe the status of program evaluation within the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) sites. The National Science Foundation's REU program supports thousands of undergraduates annually in hands-on, immersive research experiences under the mentorship of…

An undergraduate laboratory experiment has been developed for the synthesis of a reactive cross-linker that is useful in various highly visual demonstrations of organic reactivity, click chemistry, and biobased polymer synthesis. A triazolinedione-based cross-linker, which is known as a useful reagent for click chemistry, can be obtained from…

Advances in the field of Mind, Brain, and Education (MBE) have been limited by a fundamental separation between university-based neuroscience laboratories and school communities, constraining the field's ability to collaboratively devise research studies germane to child development. This commentary explores the assertion that the persistent…

This study focuses on students who are registered for the University of Pretoria's academic development programme, the Four-year Programme (FYP). The programme was introduced as a gateway for students who are under-prepared but have the potential to succeed. This programme helps them to then continue their studies in mainstream science programmes.…

Removing the pollutants from various wastewater is crucial to the environment, ecology, and humans. However, the pollutants are generally removed by chemical decomposition, which not only consumes a lot of energy but also produces carbon emissions. Electrochemical flocculation is effective to extract pollutant molecules and heavy ions from…