Quantum dots (QDs) are considered useful for demonstrating quantum phenomena in undergraduate laboratories due to their monodisperse size and excellent optical properties. Although doping has an increasingly important role in QD fabrication in the semiconductor field, it has rarely been discussed in the context of the undergraduate laboratory. In…

Inquiry-based instruction facilitates students' acquisition of scientific abilities, but little is known about how rapidly college students master these skills, particularly when this form of instruction includes scaffolding and especially when those scaffolds are removed. To address this gap, this study aimed to evaluate the effect that removing…

Scientific argumentation is a key means by which students make sense of content and processes in inquiry-based instruction. In scientific argumentation students make a "claim" that they support with "evidence" and provide "reasoning" as to how the evidence supports the claim. Integrating the different aspects of…

A practical approach for synthesizing functional material from waste material is described. The work was carried out by chemistry undergraduate students as a group project. The concepts used mainly in inorganic quantitative approaches were applied to transform an iron-containing material to magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles. The magnetic…

The content and design scheme for a readily adaptable, research-based laboratory course in chemical biology are presented. In this course, students interrogate protein structure and function using the site-specific incorporation of noncanonical amino acids by genetic code expansion. The relatively new field of genetic code expansion enables…

The concepts of phospholipase activity is often taught in undergraduate biology and biochemistry classes and reinforced in laboratory exercises. However, very rarely does the design of these exercises allow students to directly gain experience in the use of modern instruments such as digital imaging systems and fluorescence spectrophotometers. The…

The effect of surfactant adsorption on surface tension, as well as associated thermodynamic concepts are introduced in a laboratory experiment designed for undergraduate students. Using a reliable and accessible method, students measure the surface tension of aqueous solutions at different concentrations of sodium dodecyl sulfate. Students collect…

A safe and inexpensive laboratory for a first-year general chemistry course has been developed which allows students to explore important properties of carbon dioxide, particularly its behavior as a greenhouse gas. Students witness and measure air displacement to compare calculated gas densities and pressures inside a CO[subscript 2]-filled…

Many laboratory courses consist of short and seemingly unconnected individual laboratory exercises. To increase the course consistency, relevance, and student engagement, we have developed a research-inspired and project-based module, "From Gene to Structure and Function". This 2.5-week full-day biochemistry and structural biology module…

We have developed a laboratory project in which students prepare liposomes, expose them to hyperosmotic and hypoosmotic solutions, and follow the resulting shrinking and swelling (respectively) with laser light scattering. Each light intensity transient can be fit to an exponential decline or rise, with the decay constant (k) and the amplitude…

A classroom culture that features clear procedures will produce a safe learning environment for students. By establishing a class with clear procedures and effectively managing the learning environment, an educator can reduce discipline issues (Erdogan, Kursun, Tan Sisman, et al., 2010). A well-managed class will allow maximum instruction to take…

High-impact practices, and other pedagogical advancements, have been successfully used to deepen student engagement with courses over a wide variety of disciplines. Here, we describe the design, implementation, and assessment of a cross-disciplinary, inquiry-based lab course built on the proven success of these deeply engaging principles. This new…

In tabletop games involving dice, it is important to ensure randomness of the dice rolls and to protect other gaming elements from being scattered by rolling dice. One way of ensuring random rolls and protecting gaming elements is to drop dice into a dice-rolling tower ("dice tower"). A dice tower is usually small (20 cm by 20 cm) and…

Orchestrating opportunities for students to engage in scientific talk in the classroom is challenging for most teachers and even more so for novice teaching assistants (TAs) who typically instruct introductory science laboratories at the postsecondary level. This study was designed to understand how TA moves are related to instances of scientific…

This volume investigates the ubiquitous education of everyday life as people contest the normal, settle on a new convention, and deal with the difficulties that arise. By documenting adolescent Dominican girls, young men in Silicon Valley, successful venture capitalists, and others imagining, explaining, and challenging the status quo, this book…