Previous work has shown a misalignment between the goals of faculty and students for laboratory coursework. Although faculty often list learning techniques and developing critical thinking skills as goals for laboratory, students tend to focus on affective goals, such as finishing lab early and obtaining good grades. The goals of faculty have been…

In response to the call for an increased emphasis from the American Chemical Society on including macromolecular studies in the undergraduate curriculum, a supramolecular-themed experiment was designed for undergraduate-level organic laboratory courses that provides a convenient platform to study physical behaviors of supramolecular assemblies.…

This work provides information about a free-of-charge, trilingual (Portuguese, Spanish, and English), game-based application. The game allows high-school and undergraduate students to review chemical nomenclature in an engaging and fun way on their own by answering random questions from a database with over 700 questions. Student testing revealed…

The polarized optical microscope (POM) is an invaluable tool for characterizing materials such as liquid crystals and other optically anisotropic materials. Despite its frequent use in research settings, students are rarely introduced to its fundamental operation and importance. Curricula are starting to appear for applications of the POM in…

Throughout time people have been measuring the rising and setting positions of celestial objects with respect to the horizon. The motivation for this paper is to provide a link between mathematical and observational approximations for the Sun's declination (angular distance from the celestial equator). One source had students do an experiment with…

As people seek out more naturalistic experiences (e.g. camping, visiting National and State Parks, etc.), it is increasingly important for students to leave our classrooms with an understanding of and relationship to nature. The NGSS exposes students to environmental problems of today and works toward the EPA's description of environmental…

A new version of SALS (Submersible Audible Light Sensor) consists of a wireless light-detecting probe Bluetooth® connected to the iOS SALS App. As in previous versions of SALS, changes in detected light are converted to changes in sound, the latter now rendered with iPhone or iPad audio. The SALS probe assists the student with visual impairment in…

Professional development holds significant potential in promoting science education, but that potential is undermined if instructional changes are not sustained. For professional development, sustainability refers to the continuation of outcomes over an extended period of time after the program ends and is an issue across international contexts.…

It is an interesting to obtain an objective view of students' attitude toward a certain discipline and to construct effective pedagogical diagnostics based on the obtained data. Such data relates to both the academic performance of students and also their emotional attitude towards a subject and motivation to study it. This research study, using…

In this research, we will learn about the concept, measurement and analysis of an impulse using a smartphone accelerometer. The impulse measurements were performed in several experimental conditions such as free-fall objects hitting a sand surface, two cars in collision and straight punching (boxing jab). During the experimental process, the…

Python is a free, text-based programming language that has already been used by those who do physics research to great effect. But students can also learn to use it and, through its use, learn other aspects of physics--especially ones that are difficult or impossible to perform as physical labs. This article serves as a most-fundamental start for…

This brief article shows how the simple events of our everyday lives can lead to a deep understanding of the world around us. These everyday events help students make sense of the scientific ideas we present to them.

Scientific thinking can be applied to things we do at home. Effective results can be achieved in cooking or cleaning while also focusing on doing so with minimal waste of resources. This can also mean better economy. Choosing appropriate designs of equipment can make certain jobs easier. Three different topics are described to demonstrate these…

This article picks up on the notion of science capital (see Mytum-Smithson and Howell (2019) on p.55 in this issue) and demonstrates how homework can be used to support its development. Science capital is an increasingly discussed term within some education camps and one that fashionably describes the 'science baggage' that children carry with…

Although understandings of scientific inquiry (as opposed to conducting inquiry) are included in science education reform documents around the world, little is known about what students have learned about inquiry during their elementary school years. This is partially due to the lack of any assessment instrument to measure understandings about…