Despite the need for public understanding about groundwater resources, groundwater is among those topics that instructors most struggle to teach at pre-college and college levels. Although constructivist theories suggest student-held conceptions can be used as teaching tools for active learning, there remains a question about how to draw out and…

KinSim is a research-grade, interactive, user-friendly, open-source, and visual software for kinetics modeling of environmental chemistry and other applications. Students without any computer-programming background and limited knowledge of environmental chemistry can use KinSim, which also includes multiple features and functionality dedicated to…

In response to STEM education reform efforts, many instructors have incorporated active learning into their courses. However, the relationship between instructor justification to students about the use of active learning and student perception of why instructors use active learning is largely unknown. To investigate instructor active learning…

Audiovisual recordings of lectures are available to many students in all disciplines. The use of lecture recordings has been studied extensively, but it is still not clear how, or how much, they are actually used. Previous analysis of their use has been based on either survey data or computer logs of access. In the latter case, measurements of…

To remedy the difficulties encountered by Moroccan students in geometrical optics during the transition from secondary to higher education and for an efficient education system, we propose this study to investigate the causes of these difficulties as well as their impact on the quality of the secondary/university transition, and come up with a…

The indispensability and vast career possibilities associated with Chemistry notwithstanding, there is a palpable growing decline enrollment in Chemistry in Nigerian universities, particularly the private universities. The paper interrogated the teaching and learning of Chemistry in Nigerian private universities with a view to re-awakening the…

The need to make higher education curricula gender-inclusive is increasingly pressing as student cohorts diversify. We adopted a student-staff partnership approach to design, integrate, and evaluate a module that taught first-year science students the difference between biological sex, gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation in…

Adaptive Learning, as a new online learning environment, intends to individualize the learning experience for each individual learner. Adaptive Learning suffers many shortcomings, as the date of the publication of this dissertation, however, it is considered the next generation of the learning environment for at least the next twenty years;…

This three-paper dissertation addresses the experience and the implementation of evidence-based learning practices in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)/biology education. Study 1 explored instructional strategies and student perceptions and preferences for various teaching practices in graduate and undergraduate classrooms…

Confusion is an important epistemic emotion because it can help students focus their attention and effort when solving complex learning tasks. However, unresolved confusion can be detrimental because it may result in students' disengagement. This is especially concerning in simulation environments using discovery-based learning, which puts more of…

Undergraduate chemistry majors should be encouraged to consider chemistry-based solutions to issues that impact their daily lives as well as the lives of poor and marginalized populations worldwide. Some issues that disproportionately influence historically disadvantaged populations are also directly related to or could be impacted by chemistry.…

Our goal was to understand how students' chemistry learning environments changed and how students responded to the wholesale transition to online learning. We deployed surveys to students enrolled in nine undergraduate chemistry courses at all levels. Survey 1 was deployed 2 weeks post-transition (N = 208); Survey 2, a week before semester's end…

COVID-19 caught everyone by surprise, and the situation quickly escalated from epidemic to pandemic. By February 21, 2020, the first positive case was reported in Lebanon, and following that, by March 12, 2020, the decision to close all educational institutes was put into effect. Online learning is not an approved form of education in Lebanon,…

Peer mentors in learning communities for first-year students aid new students in their transition to college. However, little is known about how these peer mentors address concerning student behaviors, particularly those that may suggest a psychiatric/psychological disability. This research addressed the issue by asking peer mentors how they were…

In recent years, the applications of virtual reality (VR) in learning environments has received considerable attention. This attention occurs as a part of a wider trend seen since the early millennium. This trend is that of increasing attention being placed on modes of instruction that can supply greater realism and immersion in the science…