Training in chemistry is essential for undergraduate medical students; however, at the National University of Colombia, basic chemistry courses are associated with high fail rates and low academic performance with regard to first semester students, especially in vulnerable special admission populations. A longitudinal study was carried out via…

Despite focused effort and attention over recent years, many potential barriers to progression and success remain within Higher Education. This study focuses on a cohort of 168 students studying on two semester-long Foundation Year Biological Sciences modules delivered at the University of East Anglia in the academic year 2021/22. These modules…

Background: Effective teaching of university chemistry in an online environment not only requires teachers to have specific discipline content knowledge; it also requires them to have knowledge and skills in technology-enhanced teaching practices. When transitioning from traditional face-to-face teaching into online contexts, teachers must learn…

With the call for reformed teaching practices in STEM education, there is a need to spread effective teaching practices to classrooms. Affective drivers can lead an instructor to improve their teaching practices, but they are infrequently addressed or recognized. This case study followed one instructor through her General Chemistry course over a…

Field biology courses can be formative learning experiences that develop students' science identities. Yet, they can also pose challenges to students that may disaffirm their science identities--especially to those who identify with underrepresented, excluded, and minoritized groups. It is largely unknown how students' social (e.g., gender) and…

A dual-enrollment course was designed in which the elementary concepts of organic chemistry were introduced to high school students. Students were assessed at the end of the term using an American Chemical Society (ACS) standardized exam. The same exam was given to corresponding traditional on-campus sections of the same class taught by the same…

Herein we present an engaging description of the existent analogy between social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic and the collision cross-section of particles as defined in the collisional model for a chemical reaction. In addition, the link between collision cross-sections and kinetic rate constants is thoroughly established, bridging…

Recently there has been a push for more student-centered learning in the undergraduate classroom as a way to enhance student learning outcomes. One tool utilized in many Anatomy and Physiology courses is case studies of the material being presented. These allow students to apply their knowledge to a real-world scenario they may encounter in their…

[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Curriculum Development: Theory into Design.] A level of curricular design, called "design tactics," is identified to fill a gap in the research literature between the broad principles that guide curriculum development and the detailed writing of specific activities and lessons. The use of…

The use of synchronous remote teaching methods in two undergraduate analytical chemistry courses during the COVID-19 pandemic is described. Classes were convened using cloud-based video conferencing software, and the majority of class time involved students working in small groups on worksheets. All group activities were followed by a whole-class…

The purpose of this study was to develop two Sudoku puzzles for undergraduate students which can be utilised in the context of introductory physical science courses in order to assist them to practice SI prefixes. For this reason, SI prefixes for decimal multiples and submultiples were addressed in two separate puzzles. To test the puzzles, a case…

Research in the past decades repeatedly revealed university students' struggles to properly understand physical chemistry concepts. In contrast to school, tertiary teaching relies heavily on the symbolic level, mainly applying abstract representations such as equations and diagrams. To follow the lessons and generate conceptual understanding,…

The specialised uses of solid angles mean that they are quite unfamiliar quantities. This article, apart from making solid angles a little more familiar, brings out several topics of general interest, such as how units are interrelated and how equations depend on the choice of units. Although the steradian is commonly used as the unit for solid…

This study focuses on how the quality of students' arguments and their conceptions of data and evidence change as a result of experiencing two types of laboratory courses, one employing a scripted inquiry approach and the other employing argument-driven inquiry. The analysis explores the connections between students' conceptions of data and…

Pathophysiology describes and explains the physiological dysfunctions that occur in human diseases. Pathophysiology is content heavy, often leading to medical/biomedical science students adopting a surface approach to learning. To encourage more engagement, we developed clinical simulation practical classes using manikin patients. Students…