The use of virtual reality (VR) in anatomy education enables interactive exploration of the human body and can overcome challenges in informal education settings, such as access to donated human remains and spatial understanding of 3D structures. This study explored how individual factors--such as spatial ability, visual imagery skills, and…

Practicing chemists use models, diagrams, symbols, and figures to represent phenomena which cannot be detected by the human senses. Although research suggests that these external representations (ERs) can also be used to address the challenges that students have in learning chemistry, it is not clear how instructors' use of ERs aligns with their…

Through the experiments described in this article, students become acquainted with the principles behind ternary liquid-liquid systems and/or Aqueous Two-Phase Systems (ATPS), and their characterization by the determination of the binodal curve, tie-lines, tie-line lengths and critical point, as well as in applying the non-random two-liquid model…

Microscopy skills are critical for many aspects of biology, yet they are notoriously difficult to teach, especially to large classes. We trialled the use of widescreen monitors with touch-screen capability connected to compound microscopes in an introductory-level plant biology lab. Working in teams, students used the screens to interpret,…

Self-regulation is an active and constructive process in which students regulate and observe their own behaviour, motivations and cognition by setting their own goals during their learning process. In this study, the aim is to investigate the effects of biology laboratory practices that are supported by self-regulated learning strategies on…

The University of Oklahoma College of Medicine has conducted an annual Anatomical Donor Luncheon where families of the anatomical donors met anatomy dissection groups of medical students. The luncheon presented an opportunity for donor family members to share the life story of their loved one with the medical students prior to the start of the…

Benchtop NMR spectrometers are now becoming more widely employed in university teaching laboratories. These low-field instruments are increasingly used in reaction monitoring and product purity applications. NMR spectra obtained using these spectrometers (40-80 MHz) tend to suffer from significant overlap of signals when compared to those obtained…

A pedagogically useful undergraduate organic-chemistry-laboratory experiment has been developed that involves the synthesis of two structurally simple, achiral "O,O"- and "N,N"-acetal substrates with no stereocenters. The experiment introduces students to a "new" and more effective variant of classical acetal…

A new experiment for use in introductory nanotechnology courses is described. This experiment allows students to fabricate metallic wires with microscale lateral dimensions and nanoscale vertical dimensions. Fabrication occurs in the capillaries of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) stamps modified with hydrophilic polymers. This experiment provides…

Writing centers and writing programs, as well as the role of their administrators, are shaped by historical and disciplinary factors that have been closely examined by scholars over the last half century. However, the role of institutionality in writing center and writing program administration (WPA) studies has been ignored in much of the…

Carbon nanomaterials have promising utility in chemical sensing including applications in preserving occupational safety, monitoring of environmental pollution, and human health. While recent advances in device fabrication and molecular design of functional materials have enabled rapid fabrication of chemical sensors from carbon nanomaterials,…

Social media are a highly visible factor in the daily lives of our students. Why should teachers not take advantage of this and develop teaching and learning materials that use the designs found in such media to contextualise science learning? This article suggests some ideas for creating lab instructions using social media design as an innovative…

To increase interest in chemical engineering and introduce non-traditional chemical engineering fields to high school women, an outreach activity focused on the biomedical applications of polymers was developed. Surveys given to students before and after the activity demonstrated greater agreement with the statements "I am interested in…

Raspberry Pi Pico, based on chip RP2040, is an easy-to-use development microcontroller board that can provide flexible input/output functions and meets the teaching needs of basic electronics to first-year university undergraduates. This article presents our blended laboratory design using Raspberry Pi Pico for the course unit Digital Circuits and…

Contribution: This work seeks to ascertain the validity of a remote-controlled experiment of the Physics Remote Lab in the educational context, specifically among students from engineering courses. Background: In 2012, it has been started the development of the Physics Remote Lab at the Federal University of Itajubá, Brazil, a laboratory with a…