I. Analyzing and comparing student-generated inscriptions in chemistry is crucial to gaining insight into students' understanding about chemistry concepts. Thus, we developed two methods of analyzing student-generated inscriptions: features analysis and thematic analysis. We have also demonstrated how these methods are able to discern differences…

The purpose of this article is to share a learning-cycle sequence of lessons designed to convey the particulate nature of matter through use of physical models and analogical thinking. This activity was adapted from Conceptual Chemistry, a long-running professional development program for teachers of grades 4-9. Conceptual Chemistry's approach is…

The experience of a cohort of students enrolled in a Year 1 chemistry laboratory module delivered through a problem-based learning approach was studied. The methodology involved both qualitative and quantitative data analysis. The results show that students had a very positive attitude toward the PBL approach. The data suggests that a high…

New chemistry materials were devised for pre university National Certificate (NC) nursing students studying chemistry at a further education college. Previously, preliminary work showed that students felt that the chemistry taught to them was irrelevant, boring and difficult. It was hoped that through an applications-led style curriculum…

While approximations are used frequently in science, high school students may be unaware of the use of approximations in science, the motivation for their use, and the limitations of their use. In the article, we consider the use of approximations in a high school chemistry class as opportunities to increase student understanding of the use of…

Any student that has spent time in the kitchen knows that hot vegetable oil will pop and spatter violently after coming into contact with water such as that on the surface of foods (meat, fish, potatoes, etc.). This well-known effect can be used as an instructional resource to promote cooperative, active, and inquiry-based learning about central…

A new interdisciplinary, introductory science course was offered for the first time during the 2007-2008 school year. The purpose of the course is to introduce students to the idea of working at the intersections of biology, chemistry, and physics and to recognize interconnections between the disciplines. Interdisciplinary laboratories are a key…

Many students fail to develop a conceptual understanding of organic chemistry. Evidence suggests this failure goes hand-in-hand with a failure to grasp the techniques, meaning, and usefulness of curved arrow notation. Use of curved arrow notation to illustrate electrophilic addition appears to be a critical juncture in student understanding.…

Any instructional theory that ignores the limits of working memory when dealing with novel information or ignores the disappearance of these limits when dealing with familiar information in unlikely to be effective. (Kirschner et al. 2006, 77) (Contains 1 table and 3 figures.)

Ed Willis Barnett had quite a military training: he attended the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, (1917 to 1920) and served in both World Wars. He was also an accomplished fencer, and earned a position on the 1928 U.S. Olympic fencing team. That year the summer Olympics were held in Amsterdam, so he traveled to Europe for the…

In this article, the authors provide a brief overview of the emerging field of nanoscience and why it is an important area of education. They next explain the science behind the new nanoparticulate sunscreens, describe the different elements of the unit, and reflect on some of the opportunities and challenges of teaching nanoscience at the high…

Classifying a particle requires an understanding of the type of bonding that exists within and among the particles, which requires an understanding of atomic structure and electron configurations, which requires an understanding of the elements of periodic properties, and so on. Rather than getting tangled up in all of these concepts at the start…

Most general biochemistry textbooks present enzyme inhibition by showing how the basic Michaelis-Menten parameters K[subscript m] and V[subscript max] are affected mathematically by a particular type of inhibitor. This approach, while mathematically rigorous, does not lend itself to understanding how inhibition patterns are used to determine the…

Submicrorepresentations (SMR) could be an important element, not only for explaining the experimental observations to students, but also in the process of evaluating students' knowledge and identifying their chemical misconceptions. This study investigated the level of students' understanding of the solution concentration and the process of…

Melting temperatures of oligonucleotides are useful for a number of molecular biology applications, such as the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Although melting temperatures are often calculated with simplistic empirical equations, application of thermodynamics provides more accurate melting temperatures and an opportunity for students to apply…