The pedagogical value of having biochemistry and organic chemistry students build and manipulate physical models of chemical species is well established in the literature. Nevertheless, for the most part, the use of molecular models is generally limited to several laboratory exercises or to demonstrations in the classroom setting. A simple…

This paper offers an overview of the development of the peer-led team learning (PLTL) model for teaching and learning chemistry, from the personal journeys of the authors in their classrooms to the national dissemination of the model to the full range of colleges and universities and to other STEM disciplines. In the PLTL model, students who have…

A new curricular approach in our undergraduate second-year instrumental analysis laboratory was implemented. Students work collaboratively on scenarios in diverse fields including pharmaceuticals, forensics, gemology, art conservation, and environmental chemistry. Each laboratory section (approximately 12 students) is divided into three groups…

This study identifies some alternative conceptions of chemical kinetics held by secondary school and undergraduate students (N = 191) in Turkey. Undergraduate students who participated are studying to become chemistry teachers when they graduate. Students' conceptions about chemical kinetics were elicited through a series of written tasks and…

Despite multiple calls for reform, the curriculum for first-year college chemistry at many universities across the world is still mostly fact-based and encyclopedic, built upon a collection of isolated topics, oriented too much towards the perceived needs of chemistry majors, focused too much on abstract concepts and algorithmic problem solving,…

A group of National Certificate (NC) Health Care students participated in an applications-based chemistry curriculum intervention. In a previous study, results have indicated that learning chemistry through applications helped to improve the perceived relevance and attitudes towards learning the subject. This paper builds on this earlier work and…

We report our study of chemistry graduate students' beliefs regarding the normative values of their disciplines and their perceptions of the ethical challenges they face as students, teachers, and scientific researchers. Using a phenomenographical lens, we interviewed seven graduate students who had achieved Ph.D. candidacy and at least 3 full…

In this article, the underlying logic of experimentation is exemplified within the context of a photoelectrical experiment for students taking a high school engineering, technology, or chemistry class. Students assume the role of photochemists as they plan, fabricate, and experiment with a solar cell made of copper and an aqueous solution of…

Creative exercises (CEs) are a form of assessment in which students are given a prompt and asked to write down as many distinct, correct, and relevant facts about the prompt as they can. Students receive credit for each fact that they include that is related to the prompt and distinct from the other facts they list. With CEs, students have an…

Nanoscience and nanotechnology currently represent one of the most rapidly developing fields of science and technology; therefore, the fundamental principles of nanoscience and nanotechnology should be understood by college and even high school students as well as by members of scientific communities. Silver, as the pioneer material in these…

A simple, online, self-diagnostic tool has been developed to allow students to independently and quickly measure their potential of success in a first-year general chemistry course. The online tool employs well-established performance predictors in areas such as student educational background, conceptual basics, critical thinking, mathematical…

A new free graphical teaching tool that highlights the beautiful organic architectures of the top selling pharmaceuticals is detailed on two posters. In addition to the multitude of teaching and data-mining opportunities these posters offer, they were also created to emphasize the central role organic chemists play in the development of new…

The internal standard method is widely applied in quantitative analyses. However, most analytical chemistry textbooks either omit this topic or only provide examples of a single-point internal standardization. An experiment designed to teach students how to prepare an internal standard calibration curve is described. The experiment is a modified…

Faculty perspectives of the undergraduate chemistry laboratory were the focus of a study to articulate the goals, strategies, and assessments used in undergraduate teaching laboratories. Data were collected via semistructured interviews with faculty (N = 22) from community colleges, liberal arts colleges, comprehensive universities, and research…

Alcohol-based hand-rub sanitizers are the types of products that hospital professionals use very often. These sanitizers can be classified into two major groups: those that contain a large quantity of thickener, and thus are a gel, and those that contain a small quantity of thickener, and thus remain a liquid. In an effort to create a laboratory…