Laboratory coursework is widely considered to be an integral part of chemistry undergraduate degree programs, although its impact on students' chemistry knowledge is largely unsubstantiated. Laboratory experiences provide opportunities to learn skills beyond chemistry content knowledge, such as how to use scientific instrumentation appropriately,…

College laboratories are generally perceived to be low-risk environments in comparison to industrial laboratories and plant operations. However, accidents in college chemistry laboratories have revealed the safety conditions to which both students and staff may be exposed. Improving the effectiveness of laboratory safety training programs and…

The present study aims to examine the implementation of a stepwise inquiry approach to improving communication skills and scientific attitudes. Stepwise inquiry comprises structured inquiry, guided inquiry, and open inquiry. The variables measured were communication skills and scientific attitudes. The construct used to measure communication…

This study investigates the impact of utilizing dynamically linked concrete and abstract representations of objects in modern, virtual electric circuit laboratories on the cognitive evolution and the representational fluency of high school students. The students (N = 27, aged 16-17) were randomly divided into two classes: the first class used a…

Instruction on the design of analytical instrumentation is a critical component of the analytical chemistry curriculum. To simplify this process and enable students to directly see how the instruments that are in their own laboratory setting work, the use of augmented reality technology can be implemented. In this report, the "HP Reveal"…

Experimental design is a desirable outcome of laboratory education. Incorporating inquiry into the laboratory curriculum is attractive, but there are acknowledged concerns from practical, theoretical, and epistemological perspectives, and these are accentuated in upper-division courses. In this work, we draw on the extensive literature relating to…

Elementary and middle school science curricula typically focus on generating an interest in science and engineering through the use of hands-on activities that demonstrate specific concepts. Laboratory activities designed in this manner often circumvent some of the main challenges that engineers and scientists face, namely balancing advantages and…

How students behave and learn in the teaching laboratory is a topic of great interest in chemical education, partly in order to justify the great expense of teaching laboratories. Much effort has been put into investigating how students think, feel and physically act in these unique learning environments. One such attempt was made through the…

Introductory laboratory courses are a standard component of undergraduate science programmes and historically taught using direct instruction/confirmatory lab models. Previous studies have shown that inquiry-based labs enhance student engagement in science courses. However, research on how direct instruction introductory lab courses effectively…

Purpose: Although critical thinking skills (CTS) and scientific process skills (SPS) are the beneficial skills needed in the 21st century learning, the fact is that the acquisition of these two skills is still low. Research with a focus on improving these skills by using inquiry-based approach is also limited. Therefore, this quasi-experimental…

An escape-room-game activity was introduced to foster team building and collaborative learning in a laboratory-experiment setting. The students were placed in a laboratory with clues and puzzles that required the students to use a sequence of analytical instruments in the laboratory in order to escape. The instruments utilized included a UV-vis…

Recent advances in computer hardware and algorithms are spawning an explosive growth in the use of computer-based systems aimed at analyzing and ultimately correlating large amounts of experimental and synthetic data. As these machine learning tools become more widespread, it is becoming imperative that scientists and researchers become familiar…

The Franck-Condon Principle (FCP), the key concept for describing vibronic spectra, results from the large disparity between the time scales of electrons and nuclei in molecules. Yet in an undergraduate lecture, the FCP is nearly always rationalized from a time independent quantum mechanical viewpoint, due to students' lack of knowledge of time…

Inquiry-based learning can be an effective approach when students are provided with sufficient guidance. However, there is an ongoing debate among practitioners about the nature, type, and level of such guidance. This study investigated the effects on middle school students' (N = 116) conceptual knowledge and inquiry skills acquisition of…

Development of key practical skills is fundamental to bioscience courses in higher education. With limitations on access to laboratory time due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a "Bioskills at home" kit was developed to create opportunities for first year undergraduate students to develop these skills using online support resources to guide…