In this in-class activity, organic chemistry undergraduates try to place an assortment of molecules in chronological order from oldest to most recently synthesized. In the students' first attempt, they use their knowledge of reactions and synthesis to analyze the organic compounds for their structural complexity. Before a second attempt, the names…

Despite decades of research, NOS is still rarely explicitly and accurately taught in K-12 schools (Abd-El-Khalick & Lederman, 2023). Teachers often address NOS ineffectively as a result of inadequate knowledge of NOS and science content (Wahbeh & Abd-El-Khalick, 2014) as well as NOS pedagogy (Hanuscin et al., 2011). A variety of contextual…

Many students find introductory general chemistry courses difficult because they feel alienated by traditional approaches to teaching and learning. This can become particularly problematic in laboratory sessions where students simply follow processes and procedures that students can view as being mundane and lacking creativity. Contextualised…

Increasing diversity in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) and STEM-related degrees and professions is a national priority. Research on students' pathways in STEM may contribute to our understanding of how to change institutions to achieve diversity; however, until recently, the dominant narrative invoked a "pipeline"…

In the United States, individuals who identify as Black are severely underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. This underrepresentation begins as early as middle school due to the stereotype of successful STEM students being white and male thus affecting Black students sense of belonging in STEM. The…

This study aims to determine what pre-service teachers know about the path of water through the body, and how they intend to explain this knowledge to five-year-old preschool children. This study aims to see the opportunities young children in preschool can obtain from an explanation of the nature of science related to an everyday life activity. A…

A central aspect of reform-minded mathematical teaching is training and developing teachers' ability to notice vital aspects in the classroom and more specifically, students' mathematical thinking. As there is an abundance of evidence and research that support the benefits for teachers to elicit and use students' ideas and thinking during…

Universities tend to focus on the hard skills required within disciplines, with a general lack of focus on the teaching of soft skills, specifically in the hard sciences, while a graduate with good attributes ought to have both. There is an uncertainty over whose responsibility it is to teach soft skills between industry and universities, with the…

Academic integrity is often a concern instructors have when teaching, with past research indicating the classroom environment is one of the largest factors in determining students' likelihood to cheat. In this commentary, we intend to start a dialogue with instructors regarding the importance of creating a classroom environment that values…

There is a gap between the importance of certain archeological material sources and their perception, both by professionals and by the general public. Textiles, for example, are essential to understanding practices that marked daily life and rituals in the past, but they have often been extremely degraded over time, particularly in temperate…

Possibly the greatest irony of physics education is the difficulty of demonstrating optics in a visible way. The two most common solutions to this conundrum are to either use "all-inclusive" optical apparatuses, like a large-format camera, or to rely on classic ray-tracing diagrams. While the former looks elegant while demonstrating the…

A very simple and color-observable homemade Raman spectroscope with easy preparation is introduced by simply adding low-cost components (a transmission diffraction grating sheet, a magnifying glass, a paper mask, and a DPSS laser pointer module) to a consumer digital camera. The Raman spectral images and profiles of cyclohexane, carbon…

In organic chemistry textbooks (S)-(-)-limonene, (-)-limonene or l-limonene, is often given credit for the smell of lemons, while the R-analogue, (+)-limonene or d-limonene, is credited with that of oranges. Results from two odor tests revealed that few persons in the test associated (R)-(+)-limonene with oranges and (S)-(-)-limonene with lemons,…

Water electrolysis, a well-known and simple experiment, confirms that a water molecule comprises hydrogen and oxygen atoms. In this experiment, hydroxide or hydrogen ions generated from each electrode were identified using an indicator based on the assumption that electrodes, electrolytes, and indicators do not participate in the water…

An educational activity is proposed that uses software for proteomic analysis and databases available for free on the Internet to estimate the structure and function of a hypothetical protein from its coding nucleotide sequence. This bioinformatics activity is recommended for integrated introductory courses that address the structure function…