Students' negative perceptions of physical chemistry courses are well-known and are likely impacting their learning and performance in this upper-division course for majors. The syllabus can be the first interaction students have with a course and instructor and can be central to the expectations student set for the learning experience. While…

Peer learning programs have been developed to support many introductory science courses by providing additional instruction and engagement. These programs are beneficial to both learners and instructors, providing content learning and confidence and attitudinal gains. There is evidence that the benefits of peer learning are higher when students…

On 12 Mar. 2020 Dickinson State University moved all classes to distance delivery (DD) in response to COVID-19. Faculty had only a brief opportunity to plan, as the turn-around to DD was very rapid. Meaningful laboratory exercises were needed for SOIL 210--Introduction to Soil Science. The senior author learned about the Science of Agriculture…

Most of the research on student understanding of evolution by natural selection has focused on undergraduate biology courses for science majors. However, the majority of undergraduates in the United States will not enroll in a biology course for majors. In this study, we identify the extent of natural selection understanding that students acquire…

Digital badges are credentials earned via a digital presentation to demonstrate the mastery of a technique. They have been utilized in General Chemistry laboratory courses as an assessment tool and to document students' development of a skill. A digital badge assignment was developed for thin layer chromatography (TLC) and integrated into a…

This undergraduate dissertation project was designed to enhance organic and analytical chemistry skills of final year forensic science students. A modified Birch reaction method was employed to synthesize amphetamine from ephedrine and detect the most known byproduct of clandestine manufacture of amphetamines, e.g.,…

The COVID-19 pandemic has swiftly forced a change in learning strategies across educational institutions, from extensively relying on in-person activities toward online teaching. It is particularly difficult to adapt courses that depend on physical equipment to be now carried out remotely. This is the case for bioinformatics, which typically…

While scientists place high value on the scientific method, its relevance to everyday life is often opaque to nonscientists. In undergraduate teaching, its implementation is primarily apportioned to upper-level, laboratory science classes for majors. Herein we describe the modification of a recipe as a real-world project for learning the…

We show how learning can be improved, beyond that shown in actively taught classrooms, by also transforming the homework using the principles of deliberate practice. We measure the impact of transforming the homework on student learning in a course that had already implemented an active approach to teaching in class. We compare performance on the…

The conventional physiology courses consist of theoretical lectures, clinical application seminars, numerical exercises, simulations, and laboratory practices. However, in subjects that involve relevant physical quantities, even students who successfully pass exams may be unable to realize the actual quantities involved. For example, students may…

The "electric grid" is the system of power generators, power lines, and other equipment that transports electricity from where it is generated to where it is used. Electricity and its distribution are crucial to the functioning of modern society, yet its dynamics often go unseen and unnoticed by the public. Teaching about the sources…

To help engage non-physics majors in a General Physics II (Electricity & Magnetism) course at the University of Indianapolis, students used their smartphones to detect magnetic fields on campus in a semester-long data collection project. This paper discusses details about the design of the project, previous studies that utilize smartphones for…

Polymerization reaction media can have a profound effect on the physical properties of the resultant polymer. This phenomenon is showcased in a new experiment for the organic chemistry and polymer science teaching laboratories wherein the radical copolymerization of biobased [beta]-myrcene and dibutyl itaconate is performed using a nonhazardous…

Careful consideration of the design of an online laboratory course can lead to an improved laboratory experience for students (Cancilla & Albon, 2008). This dissertation study represents one iteration in a process to improve the online offering of a general biology lecture and laboratory course at Hartnell College. The purpose of this research…

The research presented in this dissertation describes a series of studies characterizing and assessing undergraduate chemistry students' knowledge related to the epistemic nature of scientific models and modeling. Engaging in authentic scientific practices, for instance, developing and using scientific models, has been identified as an important…