In the world of higher education, one of the struggles instructors face in the classroom is engaging students in the material. A second discussion in higher education pedagogy is how to weigh content versus activity in the science classroom. How should college teaching be set up when students now have every fact ever found at their fingertips on a…

Background: Stakeholders' interpretations of the findings of large-scale educational assessments can influence important decisions. In the context of educational assessment, standard-setting remains an especially critical element, because it is complex and largely unstandardized. Instruments established by means of standard-setting procedures such…

This study examines differences in the ability of undergraduate students, taught in lecture-based or context-based general chemistry courses, to describe reaction kinetics. The subjects included 210 students from a residential science college at a large research university. Two open-ended questions were used to engage students' surface knowledge…

Since the emergence of augmented reality (AR), it has been a constant subject of educational research, as it can improve conceptual understanding and generally promote learning. In addition, a motivational effect and improved interaction and collaboration through AR were observed. Recently, AR technologies have taken a major leap forward in…

Multiple-choice (MC) exams are common in undergraduate general chemistry courses in the United States and are known for being difficult to construct. With their extensive use in the general chemistry classroom, it is important to ensure that these exams are valid measures of what chemistry students know and can do. One threat to MC exam validity…

A laboratory experiment is detailed that entails the separation and derivatization of the artificial sweetener sucralose from a commercially available sweetener mixture. The experiment utilizes 1 g packets of a sucralose-based artificial sweetener and involves the separation of the synthetic sweetener from the more polar bulk additives by…

A reliable method for bleach-based alcohol oxidation has been developed. Use of sodium bisulfate as the acid additive in the reaction mixture eliminates the various problems associated with acetic acid, which has commonly been used for this type of oxidation. By conducting the reaction in an ethyl acetate/water two-phase reaction mixture,…

Teaching the concept of pH buffers is considered to be important both in the final high-school years and at the early undergraduate level. Here, we propose the use of pH-log C diagrams to investigate the properties of pH buffers. This graphical approach is extremely simple to employ because it only requires drawing a simple square that can then be…

A collaborative learning module for teaching protein mass spectrometry has been developed to overcome common obstacles to incorporating the modern topic of biological mass spectrometry into the undergraduate chemistry curriculum. Protein mass spectrometry data is provided to eliminate the need for expensive instrumentation, and an instructor's…

A physical model has been designed to help students visualize concepts involved when solving infrared spectra. The physical model uses balls and springs to incorporate the harmonic oscillator model and Hooke's law to study dynamic vibrations within diatomic molecules. Various concepts are addressed with the model to abstract principles about how…

In this mixed-methods study, undergraduate students identified with a learning disability indicated their preferred instructional approaches to learning in college-level STEM courses. The relationships between preferred instructional strategies and learner characteristics: (a) declared major; (b) learning disability; and (c) gender were examined.…

NMR is a fundamental part of any undergraduate chemistry degree, and training students how to measure and interpret NMR spectra is essential for postgraduate research or chemistry-based careers. Traditionally, the undergraduate laboratory experience with NMR is restricted to sample submission for NMR analysis, which is typically conducted by a…

A laboratory experiment introducing the concept of chemical bioconjugation of proteins to undergraduate students in a therapeutically relevant context was developed. Initially, students installed an aldehyde functionality into a protein via the oxidation of the N-terminal threonine residue of the cholera toxin subunit B (CTB) protein, which was…

This article describes an activity designed to hone students' lay communication skills. After carefully analyzing journal articles that highlight specific aspects of vertebrate physiology, students generate "press releases" to summarize experimental results and suggest potential applications of the research. By producing succinct,…

This book offers an overview of the research carried out in didactics on the teaching and learning of science at university from the perspective of university pedagogy. The first part sheds light on the links between university pedagogy and didactics, by studying the nature and place of disciplinary pedagogical knowledge at university and the…