Chemistry labs are often taught using a rote mechanical approach without much explicit scaffolding for academic reflection by the students. Reflection, however, can play an essential role in learning because it is an evidence-based learning process that generates, deepens, critiques, and documents learning. By moving away from traditional teaching…

Chemistry education researchers have, for many years, explored different ways of learning chemistry through modeling and open-ended problem-solving. With the emergence of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools such as ChatGPT, students now have access to dynamic scaffolds that can potentially support them in modeling. However, we still…

Acid-base physiology is widely recognized as one of the most conceptually challenging topics in undergraduate education due to its interdisciplinary nature and the necessity for both mechanistic and integrative understanding. This article presents a structured, system-based teaching framework designed to enhance student comprehension of acid-base…

An elective course on chemical process separations has been developed to provide upper-level undergraduate students the opportunity to develop expertise in evaluating and potentially improving energy consumption in distillation operations. This paper presents examples of the work submitted to illustrate the pedagogy of the class. These examples…

This study explored how using computer simulations helped 7th grade students improve their understanding of chemistry. At my school, many students are below grade-level in reading and math, which can make science more challenging. During a 3-week chemistry unit, I used simulations from Amplify and other online tools. These simulations allowed…

Virtual laboratory is an emerging technological and innovative tool which has been widely used in different disciplines particularly in education technologies and instructional design. Such tool has been proved to enhance teaching and learning practices especially in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) related subjects. This…

With the increasing reliance on digital platforms, mobile game-based phone applications provide avenues to enhance learning of complex chemical concepts. This research developed a mobile game-based phone application designed to simulate the qualitative inorganic analysis of cations, determine its effects on learning, and examine students' insights…

Valid rubrics facilitate assessing the level of complexity in students' open-ended responses. To design a valid rubric, it is essential to thoroughly define the types of responses that represent evidence of varying complexity levels. Formulating such evidence statements can be approached deductively by adopting predefined criteria from the…

One of the more difficult concepts introduced in the first-year undergraduate course, general chemistry, is that of chirality. Typically, left and right hands are the common, macroscopic objects of reference used to demonstrate the quality of being nonsuperimposable, followed by the use of a mirror and molecular models, to illustrate molecular…

The idea of a practical examination in a subject is an old and established one in many fields, within chemistry, in widely differing areas of academics, and in many on-the-job training scenarios. In a dedicated course on chemical safety, we have found that "the unsafe lab practical" makes for a thought-provoking and yet fun final…

Although the phrase "seat of EMF" in describing chemical cells has fallen into disuse, by distinguishing the distinct but incorrect conceptions both of Galvani and of Volta, in favor of the correct view of Faraday, "seat of EMF" it becomes possible (among other things) to understand: (1) why internal resistance really is…

Syntheses of analogues of historical indigo and Maya blue pigments using an inquiry-based approach are presented. Derivatives of indigo were synthesized (in particular Tyrian purple) and used as vat dyes for dyeing cotton or wool fabrics or mixed with a sepiolite clay to create new hues or colors of Maya blues using a green chemistry hydrothermal…

Aqueous dispersions of soot and other carbon materials, prepared in a manner similar to that used for preparing traditional Japanese ink, were developed as teaching materials for colloid chemistry. The protective colloid formed by the addition of glue is an interesting teaching material that allows visual understanding of various colloidal…

Inert gas manifolds for the handling of air-sensitive materials are commonplace in the inorganic chemistry curriculum as well as in research laboratories specializing in inorganic and organometallic synthesis. Mercury bubblers are ubiquitously implemented for maintaining a positive internal pressure for air-free manifold systems, commonly known as…

The SIR model is a differential equations based model of the spread of an infectious disease that compartmentalises individuals in a population into one of three states: those who are susceptible to a disease (S), those who are infected and can transmit the disease to others (I), and those who have recovered from the disease and are now immune…