In an ongoing effort to increase student retention and success in the undergraduate general chemistry course sequence, a fully online preparatory chemistry course was developed and implemented at a large public research university. To gain insight about the efficacy of the online course, an observational study was carried out in which student…

An experimental procedure is presented that was developed by fifth-year chemical engineering and industrial chemistry undergraduates at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro doing the discipline on Experimental Organic Technology. The aim of this study was to apply the solvatochromic effect of the dye Nile Blue chloride to the characterization…

This study details the efforts taken in remotely teaching a large organic chemistry lecture course in the midst of the recent COVID-19 pandemic. The course lectures were taught synchronously via Zoom and student feedback was gathered regarding effective teaching strategies and assessment tools in a remote course setting. The precourse and…

As the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic spread throughout the world, universities were faced with extraordinary challenges. Shelter-in-place orders were given, in-person classes were canceled, and at the University of California Irvine, instructors had less than 2 weeks to convert spring quarter classes from a face-to-face to an online format. A team-based…

Immersive virtual reality (IVR) simulations for education have been found to increase affective outcomes compared to traditional media, but the effects on learning are mixed. As reflection has previously shown to enhance learning in traditional media, we investigated the efficacy of appropriate reflection exercises for IVR. In a 2 × 2…

Perspective taking has been identified as a critical skill in the development of scientifically literate citizenry. Despite the importance of the construct, operationalising and identifying effective pedagogical strategies to promote effective perspective taking have proven challenging. This study provides empirical evidence to support the…

Pervasive narratives about who and what counts as competent in science disproportionately impact students historically underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), and are perpetuated in the design of STEM courses. Equity-focused education literature argues for the need to develop robust learning ecologies that support…

Individuals use information selectively, in ways that support group beliefs or one's psychological needs--this is motivated reasoning. Motivated reasoning is revealed in correlations between (1) opinions/knowledge and (2) individual cognitive preferences, such as need for closure, belief in a just world, and authoritarianism. We ask whether…

Students' epistemologies of experimental physics refer to how they understand the role of experimentation as well as the experimental operation and design and communication of results in physics. This research aimed to find whether students in inquiry-based physics laboratory activities show more expert-like epistemologies of experimental physics…

Communicating even fundamental scientific concepts can be challenging. Furthermore, student mental models are often difficult to uncover even by the most talented teacher or researcher. Drawing is a universal process skill widely used by scientists to refine their conceptions about a wide range of topics, communicate ideas, and advance scientific…

This paper explores the effect of a paired lab course on students' course outcomes in nonmajors introductory biology at the University of Alaska Anchorage. We compare course completion and final grades for 10,793 students (3736 who simultaneously enrolled in the lab and 7057 who did not). Unconditionally, students who self-select into the lab are…

The flipped classroom has the potential to improve student performance. Because flipping involves both preclass preparation and problem solving in the classroom, the means by which increased learning occurs and whether the method of delivering content matters is of interest. In a partially flipped cell biology course, students were assigned online…

We present an investigation into the interdisciplinary role of physics in a physics-for-nonphysicists course at Pomona College. This work is guided by prior research into introductory physics for life science (IPLS) courses, but attends to significant differences in the scope and context of this course. We interviewed enrolled students, physics…

This article describes a ten week long laboratory exercise designed for undergraduate students aimed at enhancing their understanding of physiological and biochemical responses of plants under dehydration stress. Hypothesis was built around previous reports which suggested that exogenous application of certain elicitors leads to transient…

To promote the integration of aesthetic education into chemistry education, this study designed activities to photograph precipitation reaction experiments with a smartphone, thereby combining experimental inquiry with artistic creation across disciplines. These activities were divided into (i) perceiving, (ii) appreciating, (iii) exploring, and…