The flipped classroom is a relatively new active learning pedagogical intervention, gaining popularity as a blended learning methodology. The flipped classroom comprises two distinct parts, directed learning carried out at the student's own pace away from the classroom and an interactive, class-based activity encouraging problem-solving and…

Overwhelming evidence demonstrating the benefits of active-learning pedagogy has led to a shift in teaching that requires students to interact more in the classroom. To date, few studies have assessed whether there are gender-specific differences in participation in active-learning science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses,…

Even among the sciences, physics stands out as an unusually White- and male-dominated field. The American Institute of Physics (AIP) reports that only 19% of physics faculty are women, and less than 6% of physics faculty are African American or Hispanic. Particularly for female students, the transition from high school to a college major in…

Writing is an integral part of the process of science. In the undergraduate physics curriculum, the most common place that students engage with scientific writing is in lab classes, typically through lab notebooks, reports, and proposals. There has not been much research on why and how we include writing in physics lab classes, and instructors may…

The Covid-19 pandemic is the reason why humanity is paying more attention to the importance of regular and rigorous handwashing. Interestingly, in the nineteenth century, regular and rigorous handwashing was a key (and controversial) solution proposed by the Hungarian obstetrician Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis to cut drastically cases of puerperal…

How do we engage students outside their major discipline? Recent curriculum changes have led to increases in nonlaboratory science course offerings for nonmajors to not only bolster science literacy but also demonstrate the relevance and impact of science on their everyday lives. At Elon University, we deliberately designed the course, Culinary…

Research has demonstrated that academically successful students are effective, self-regulated learners. Moreover, exam wrapper interventions have been shown to foster the development of self-regulated learning behaviors on the part of college students. In this naturalistic, qualitative, and exploratory study, an exam wrapper intervention was…

Peer-led team learning (PLTL) is a pedagogical method in which former students, i.e., those who have successfully completed the course, assist current students in learning course material either through supplemental instruction or in the classroom setting. The impact on student learning for students participating in a PLTL course is widely…

Abrupt disruptions to academia, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Spring 2020, have brought unprecedented challenges in teaching, yet it has brought many lessons, driving the development of strategies in response to the crisis. The general chemistry laboratory course is often considered difficult to teach, due to students' heterogeneous chemistry…

While project laboratories have become a staple in analytical chemistry courses, Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) has forced many universities to adopt an online instruction model, which raises challenges in creating quality content that matches the learning objectives of the course. Here we describe the transition of an inquiry-based project lab from…

As the need for online or virtual science courses grows, it is important to incorporate laboratory work into these courses. However, it is difficult to find cost-effective ways to integrate the laboratory work, especially as campuses across the world have had to quickly transition to the online learning environment in the midst of the COVID-19…

During the final week of winter quarter, the University of California, Irvine announced all exams would be online and the following quarter would be delivered remotely. This necessitated a course-wide common final with over 2000 students scheduled to be moved online. For the following quarter, the move to remote instruction included three…

In response to China's Ministry of Education's directive for "postponement of school without suspension of learning" to combat the spread of COVID-19, we commenced online classes at Shandong University. Teaching in an online environment presented a number of challenges in comparison with face-to-face instruction. A key question raised…

As part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring 2020 semester, a large-lecture organic POGIL classroom was moved completely online. Normally the course involved daily group work that was facilitated by undergraduate teaching assistants, and these TAs would also assess student process skills such as critical thinking, information…

To become scientifically literate, students must learn to proficiently utilise and fluently integrate a suite of specialised and contextualised multimodal literacy practices. While the frequency of explicit reading and writing instruction in the sciences is increasing, the wider range of multimodal practices are often not adequately addressed. We…