Background: The Classroom Observation Project employs direct observations of geoscience teaching across the USA using the Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP) to quantify the use of reformed teaching practices. We report on 345 RTOP observations used to evaluate the extent of teaching reform when curricular materials developed as part of…

Science is rapidly changing with vast amounts of new information and technologies available. However, traditional instructional formats do not adequately prepare a diverse population of learners who need to evaluate and use knowledge, not simply memorize facts. Moreover, curricular change has been glacially slow. One starting goal for curricular…

Drug design and development requires collaboration among scientists with diverse expertise. In early-stage drug design, establishment of promising drug candidates requires integration of structure-based molecular design with biopharmaceutics and ADMET (absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity) principles. Much of this work is…

Open-ended problem-solving skills have been identified as employable skills, which undergraduate students will need to have in order to cope with real-life problems in their workplaces after graduation. However, the development and assessment of these skills have been inconsistent across courses offered in universities. This research examined…

Much work has been done to characterize the reasoning of students as they solve mathematics-intensive problems and characterizing differences in expert and novice problem solving. In this work, we characterize the problem-solving strategies in a classroom setting of "transitioning novices," students who have completed an introductory…

We developed a three-dimensional motion tracking system that displays trajectories as augmented reality in real time on a tablet device. The features of this system are as follows: (1) the three-dimensional trajectory can be observed from any direction. (2) Velocity and acceleration can be visualized as augmented reality. The device consists of an…

This work describes a simple talking calorimeter for the visually impaired based on the Arduino Uno without any shield. An electronic interface was designed using a Wheatstone bridge, a thermistor, or an operational amplifier (opamp). The temperature values are communicated by a loudspeaker connected to pulse-width modulation (PWM) digital output…

This communication describes the actions undertaken to translate the chemical crystallography course at the University of Novi Sad, Serbia, from face-to-face to online instruction, as well as the emerging challenges encountered during this unprecedented time. As part of the global efforts to respond to the recent disruptions to teaching, our…

The pandemic COVID-19 has brought the closure of schools of all levels and all universities in Italy, since early March 2020 up to the end of the teaching period (first half of June 2020). However, almost all universities guaranteed the continuity of educational and professional courses by using several distance education modalities. The purpose…

The COVID-19 lockdown in Australia forced Bond University to transition from their normal face-to-face delivery mode to a remote delivery mode during the first trimester of 2020. In this communication, we discuss the experiences in transitioning to an online teaching model, and we discuss the challenges faced and the outcomes achieved. We reflect…

Closing the university due to the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a sudden shift from independent research projects in biochemistry to a virtual learning experience focused on essential research skills and an added community outreach activity. Here, pedagogical strategies and lessons learned on restructuring this upper-level biochemistry laboratory…

We present our experience with transferring a four-day photometry and dye-adsorption laboratory experiment to the kitchens of students of Applied Thermodynamics from our degree in "Industrial Chemical Process Engineering". The students designed and built a double-beam photometer using their smartphones and household materials, then…

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted face-to-face instruction in educational institutions all over the world. As instructors we had to scramble to completely change courses to emergency remote delivery, sometimes with only a few days' notice. Herein, we present reflections on the successes and challenges we encountered following the sudden…

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spring 2020, chemistry faculty across the globe quickly converted courses to an online format. Resources rapidly became available that reflected the views of faculty and administration concerning online learning, but it is only after having been through the experience that student perspectives can now be…

An organic solar cell fabrication kit has been developed for demonstration in both undergraduate teaching classes and high school laboratories to promote the growing field of renewable energy and to facilitate empirical comprehension of solar technology. The laboratory focuses on fabricating organic photovoltaics (solar cells) and testing the…