Inquiry- and context-based learning (IBL and CBL, respectively) can lead to improved student outcomes, including increased motivation and interest, the development of critical thinking skills, and improved assessment results. This study outlines the application of IBL research projects in third-year university Environmental Chemistry and…

The COVID-19 pandemic emphasized the importance of peer communication networks for student outcomes. Herein, we describe the use of supplemental instructional videos created by former students and integrated into electronic lab notebooks, to restore the lost community-learning component using student voices in a de-densified upper-division…

Although there has been a significant increase in the number of charter schools, little is known about their science education programs from the science teachers' perspective. Also, the COVID-19 pandemic created limitations for all participants that required new untested approaches that varied depending on circumstances. The first study in this…

Given the recent state of social distancing, the online lab experience discussed in this article offers an economical and versatile approach to online undergraduate chemistry lab instruction. With videoconferencing software, this experience is easily adaptable to a socially distanced learning environment, although it was initially designed for a…

This paper argues that undergraduate peer-to-peer instruction in STEM writing provides valuable insights into the relationship between writing and disciplinary identity. Drawing on observation and interview data from a writing center staffed by undergraduate STEM students, I argue that STEM writing tutors construct disciplinary identities by…

Young children's symbolic representations are important to emergent literacy; therefore, this study focused on children's spontaneous block building and picture drawing in preschool. The goals of this exploratory study were: (1) investigate the relation between the complexity of block play, picture drawing details, and performance on an emergent…

In an era where technology is being used more and more in daily life, the potential and effective use of technology is becoming increasingly vital in education. Engineering education necessitates the use of technology to assist students in understanding abstract concepts and principles. Augmented reality (AR) is a technology that can be used to…

The Center for Universal Education (CUE) at Brookings has been investigating efforts to scale and sustain evidence-based initiatives leading to large-scale improvements in children's learning. CUE has been implementing a series of collaborative action research initiatives called Real-time Scaling Labs (RTSL), in partnership with local institutions…

Writing studies and writing center scholars have recently focused much- needed attention on how graduate student writers are taught, mentored, and supported. This scholarship also points to a persistent and stubborn conundrum: Graduate students must write their way into disciplinary belonging, yet most advisors lack a language for, or even…

Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) incorporate research opportunities into the existing curriculum often by providing alternatives or replacing the traditional cookbook-based laboratory courses. Over the past 50 years, CURE courses have been shown to benefit both students and faculty members alike. Despite the large number of…

This study reported the effects of a research-based laboratory module on students' scientific research, green chemistry, and research skills self-efficacy in a second-semester general chemistry laboratory course. The research-based laboratory module was designed based on the course-based research experience (CURE) model, which features materials…

In this paper, we describe an experiment for the undergraduate physical chemistry laboratory in which students determine the speed of sound in the gases He, N[subscript 2], CO[subscript 2], and CF[subscript 3]CH[subscript 2]F. The experimental apparatus consists of a closed acrylic tube containing the gas under study. White audio noise is injected…

Undergraduate-level laboratory experiments that involve the synthesis of nanomaterials with well-defined/controlled shapes are very attractive under the umbrella of nanotechnology education. Herein we describe a low-cost and facile experiment for the synthesis of Cu(OH)[subscript 2] and CuO nanowires comprising three main parts: (i) synthesis of…

The principles of process-oriented guided inquiry learning (POGIL) are applied to a binary solid-liquid mixtures experiment. Over the course of two learning cycles, students predict, measure, and model the phase diagram of a mixture of fatty acids. The enthalpy of fusion of each fatty acid is determined from the results. This guided inquiry…

The synthesis of epoxidized soybean oil (ESO) provides students a vantage point on the application of green chemistry principles in a series of experiments. Qualitative tests review the reactions of alkenes, whereas spectroscopic analyses provide insight in monitoring functional group transformations.