Science education is crucial for fostering knowledge across academic disciplines. Past efforts to enhance science achievement at the elementary level have explored various instructional strategies. Among these, the Understanding by Design (UbD) model has shown notable potential in improving science achievement outcomes compared to traditional…

Designing a relevant and engaging curriculum for biochemistry undergraduates can be challenging for topics which are at the periphery of the subject. We have used the framework of context-based learning as a means of assessing understanding of quantum theory in a group of students in their junior year. Our context, the role of retinol in skincare,…

Teachers teaching science to students in inner-city Title I schools should be the most influential group interested in education as a profession, yet it is rare for them to attain the desired comprehension of science amongst these students. The problem addressed by this study was the scarce knowledge of effective teaching practices and strategies…

Background: Students employ a variety of study strategies to learn and master content in their courses. Strategies vary widely in their effectiveness for promoting deep, long-term learning, yet most students use ineffective strategies frequently. Efforts to educate students about effective study strategies have revealed that knowledge about…

In this study, the implementation of a STEAM project was critically examined, with constructivist grounded principles utilized to inform the perspective of both a learner and a STEAM practitioner. A comprehensive project plan was devised that incorporated CAP domains through the integration of the STEAM praxis with peer and self-assessment…

The greenhouse effect is a complex scientific phenomenon that plays a crucial role in understanding climate change. Grasping students' understanding of this phenomenon on the content-specific level but also how students' conceptions are organized is vital for effective climate change education. This study addresses both levels and delves into the…

Circulatory system is a challenging subject for middle school students to learn and understand conceptual relationships. To address these challenges, this study developed plugged (computational thinking activities using computer) and unplugged (computational thinking activities without using computer) teaching modules that integrated computational…

Teaching chemistry and biology students about biologics design remains challenging despite its increasing importance in pharmaceutical development. Monoclonal antibodies, commonly called mAbs, are the most popular biologics. They have been developed into drugs to treat various diseases in the past decades. Multiple challenges exist for designing…

We present a new highly interdisciplinary project-based course in computer aided drug discovery (CADD). This course was developed in response to a call for alternative pedagogical approaches during the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused the cancellation of a face-to-face summer research program sponsored by the Louisiana Biomedical Research Network…

With a primary objective to engage students in the process of science online, we transformed a long-standing laboratory course for first-year science students into a more accessible, immersive experience of current biological research using a narrow and focused set of primary literature and the Consider, Read, Elucidate a hypothesis, Analyze and…

Visual displays are important components of scientists' public outreach about climate change, yet little is known about how and why scientists choose visual displays. This descriptive, exploratory study sought insight to understand the factors that drive scientists' decisions about their choice of visual displays for public outreach and education.…

Graphic Organizers are visual and graphic display that illustrates the correlations between facts, terms, and ideas with a learning task. Integrating Graphic Organizers can enhance the efficiency of the teacher's delivery of lessons and students' learning. However, no study had been conducted in using graphic organizers in the process of teaching…

Science education has been the focus of reform for years since the publication of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) framework in 2013, which included eight science and engineering practices to enhance science literacy in students across the United States. Despite the attention science education has gained over the years, teachers still…

Research on motivation has shown that students perform better when they perceive utility-value in their course. Utility-value is a domain of motivation that is reflective of the perceived importance or usefulness of a task for accomplishing future goals. In this study, students in a community college introductory chemistry course were tasked with…

This study aimed to juxtapose the impacts of the Problem-Based Learning (PBL) methodology implemented within a three-dimensional (3D) virtual environment against PBL in a conventional face-to-face setting, along with a control group, on students' learning performance, conceptual comprehension, and spatial aptitude. The investigation concentrated…