This study aims to ascertain academicians' opinions about out-of-school learning, awareness of it, and competency to plan learning activities in such situations for the purpose of teaching in out-of-school learning environments (OSLEs). The research group of this study, which was conducted as a case study, consists of 56 academics in the physics,…

Students' interest is considered an important learning outcome, but it is also a relevant predictor for student learning, and future vocational choices. According to numerous studies, however, students' interest in STEM fields usually declines during the course of secondary education. From the perspective of science education, it is therefore…

Formative assessment supports teachers in recognizing students' learning strengths and shortcomings and enhancing teaching and learning approaches. The current study aims to examine the impact of digital-based formative assessment on students' learning of organic chemistry. In this study, a mixed research strategy was used. Students in senior five…

Students perceive molecular bonding as an abstract concept; therefore, learning this concept seems uninteresting and difficult. A strategically designed learning object (LO), such as in the form of a simulation, can be used to help students acquire accurate mental images and build appropriate schema in addition to providing a concrete learning…

The main goal of this study was to validate the strategy for the assessment of the cognitive complexity of chemical kinetics exam items. The strategy included three steps: 1) assessment of the difficulty of concepts, 2) assessment of distractor value, and 3) assessment of concepts' interactivity. One of the tasks was to determine whether there…

Mole, molar mass and the Avogadro number are used constantly to measure the amount of substance in chemical changes. However, students have difficulty in understanding these concepts because they are not familiar with measuring very small amounts of matter that cannot be seen and weighed in daily life, like atoms. The mole concept was developed to…

The M.S. Chemistry -- Chemical Education Specialization program at South Dakota State University provides in-depth general chemistry coursework to in-service high school science teachers in a virtual format. The goal of the program is for the teachers enrolled to become more effective teachers while gaining content knowledge in chemistry; in…

Two-tiered assessment structures with paired content and confidence items are frequently used within chemistry assessments to stimulate and measure students' metacognition. The confidence judgment is designed to promote students' reflection on their application of content knowledge and can be characterized as calibrated or miscalibrated based on…

Second-term general chemistry is a key gateway course at our institution for a variety of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) majors. Herein, we examine data on DFW% (i.e., % of D and F grades and withdrawals) in our general chemistry courses over roughly a quarter-century period, focusing on sections taught by the authors.…

This article describes the design and implementation of a sensors-based entrepreneurial-minded learning (EML) module in a large (>150 students) first-year General Chemistry II course. Students worked in groups create a novel sensor that solves an existing scientific problem or improves upon an existing sensor. Students proposed and explained…

Language, and thus scientific language, is essential for chemistry teaching and learning. To be able to successfully teach the scientific language of chemistry, the Chemish, (prospective) chemistry teachers need to possess pedagogical scientific language knowledge (PSLK).Thus, teacher preparation needs to focus explicitly on Chemish and its…

Digital automated assessment is a valuable and time-efficient tool for educators to provide immediate and objective feedback to learners. Automated assessment, however, puts high demands on the quality of the questions, alignment with the intended learning outcomes, and the quality of the feedback provided to the learners. We here describe the…

Educational escape rooms are immersive puzzle-based games that rely on teamwork skills in problem-solving, critical thinking, and communication. This paper describes the development of desert island themed escape rooms in a blended learning environment using physical and online puzzles that were hosted on Genially. The blended escape rooms were…

The "maker" movement is gaining widespread attention, especially in the field of laboratory education. Here we have built a low-cost, "do-it-yourself", open-source thermal conductivity cell detector (TCD) for chemical laboratory analysis, which is assembled from thermal conductivity gas sensor elements and 3D-printed flow cell…

Descriptive statistics involves summarizing and organizing data so that they can be easily understood. Even though these are basic and simple concepts, many applied science students have misconceptions about their use in applied experiments in the laboratory. Students usually receive limited or no training in how to understand the meaning of the…