Many introductory and nanotechnology textbooks discuss the operation of various microscopes including atomic force (AFM), scanning tunneling (STM), and scanning electron microscopes (SEM). In a nanotechnology laboratory class, students frequently utilize microscopes to obtain data without a thought about the detailed operation of the tool itself.…

This column shares reflections or thoughtful opinions on issues of broad interest to the community. This month's issue discusses why college teachers should become familiar with the NGSS.

Structured collaborative peer teams are widely recognized as a high-impact pedagogy that supports learning outcomes for diverse learners but it can be difficult to implement this pedagogy in an online environment. This communication describes a structure to use collaborative teams to develop and sustain a community of inquiry in an asynchronous…

This study investigates six university professors' reflections on the shift to remote instruction during the Spring 2020 semester in response to the COVID-19 global pandemic. The rapid shift in instructional platform presents an opportunity to learn from unresolved challenges that persisted through the semester. Here we present a qualitative study…

During the COVID-19 pandemic, an at-home laboratory program was created and implemented for a section of the general chemistry course at the University of Southern California. The experiments were designed to only utilize safe household items and no special equipment. These laboratory activities, spanning over 4 weeks, focused on concepts usually…

Increasing the success of Underrepresented Students of Color (USC) in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is a central concern to many researchers, policymakers, and educators. To help understand STEM college student success, many studies have utilized Holland's (1966, 1973, 1985, 1997) person-environment fit framework…

The purpose of this multiple case study was to examine the kinds of experiences that were critical to the physics trajectories of four purposefully selected undergraduate female physics students in central Europe. The data were collected through individual semi-structured interviews and were analyzed following an inductive approach and a…

Collaboration is regarded as one of the core competences of the 21st century when it comes to complex problem solving. In response to high dropout rates among STEM students, we developed a digital-collaborative intervention on a difficult topic, MO theory, for first-year chemistry students. First, students work independently in a Digital Learning…

Making inferences and reasoning with new scientific information is critical for successful performance in biology coursework. Thus, identifying students who are weak in these skills could allow the early provision of additional support and course placement recommendations to help students develop their reasoning abilities, leading to better…

ACTA's What Will They Learn?® (WWTL) project is designed to help students choose the best college or university for them. The printed report and its online companion WhatWillTheyLearn.com represent the only assessment of U.S. colleges and universities that focuses on what schools are actually teaching. This report assigns grades to over 1,130…

We investigated the effects of a laboratory curriculum developed using the socio-­scientific issues (SSI) framework to contextualize scientific and socially relevant issues for students. Using self-determination theory and hierarchical linear modeling, we examined the effects of the SSI curriculum relative to a control curriculum on student…

In Australia, a significant number of students enrol in first-year university biology without the benefit of high school biology. In order to help students support each other, the authors of this paper (a central unit academic developer and a biology coordinator of first-year biology) created a classroom activity that facilitated the distribution…

College science courses aim to teach students both disciplinary knowledge and scientific literacy skills. Several instruments have been developed to assess students' scientific literacy skills, but few studies have reported how demographic differences may play a role. The goal of this study was to determine whether demographic factors…

Curricula related to sustainability and climate science are being integrated into academic science courses and programs. We set out to assess the knowledge of some of these environmental concepts among a group of Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing (D/d/HH) postsecondary students. A survey that attempted to gauge student understanding and perceptions of climate…

This paper reports evidence on the decomposition of a gender academic achievement gap (GAAP) at the university level by type of college from a unique environment, where the majority of an undergraduate student population shares similar socio-economic and demographic backgrounds and attends the largest and only public university in the country.…