GRANTISM (GReenland and ANTarctic Ice Sheet Model) is an educational Excel™ model introduced by Pattyn (2006). Here, GRANTISM is amended to simulate the Svalbard-Barents-Sea Ice Sheet during the Last Glacial Maximum, an analogue for the contemporary West Antarctic Ice Sheet. A new name, "GRANTSISM," is suggested; the added S represents…

Being able to contextualise and solve complex problems is a highly valued skill in STEM graduates--a skill which we strive to nurture in our students. Since its introduction into undergraduate teaching, laboratory teaching has been used to consolidate students conceptual understanding, develop their practical skills and inculcate an evidence based…

We propose the use of a smartphone based apparatus as a valuable tool for investigating the optical absorption of a material and to verify the exponential decay predicted by Beer's law. The very simple experimental activities presented here, suitable for undergraduate students, allows one to measure the material transmittance including its…

The teaching of histology has changed dramatically with virtual microscopy. Fewer students of histology spend significant time viewing slides on a microscope and instead study images available in digital slide sets, generally accessible via the internet. However, students must still be able to correctly identify the defining characteristics of…

An integrated laboratory experiment applying concepts and techniques from organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry, and instrumental analysis is presented for use in the undergraduate curriculum. This experiment highlights the synthesis, characterization, and use of tris(2-pyridylmethyl)amine (TPMA) to make complexes with different metal salts. It…

Many types of batteries power an ever-growing number of devices. Electrochemical devices like batteries and fuel cells can, in principle, exceed Carnot efficiency for energy conversion. In this novel laboratory experiment, students explore the partitioning of the enthalpy change of a battery's electrochemical reaction between useful electrical…

Recent advances in spectroscopy and computational chemistry facilitate the introduction of current spectroscopic and computational methods at the undergraduate level. Students obtain and analyze experimental and calculated vibrational spectra (infrared and Raman) of a set of alkyne molecules to determine the role of symmetry with respect to gross…

This issue of "Assessment Update" presents the following articles: (1) Assessment in Postsecondary Chemistry Education: A Comparison of Course Types (Rebecca E. Gibbons, Jessica J. Reed, Shalini Srinivasan, Sachel M. Villafañe, Emily Laga, Joshua Vega, Kristen L. Murphy, and Jeffrey R. Raker); (2) Beyond Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic:…

We have developed an integrated, project-oriented curriculum for undergraduate molecular biology and biochemistry laboratory courses spanning two semesters that is organized around the "ldhA" gene from the yogurt-fermenting bacterium "Lactobacillus bulgaricus," which encodes the enzyme d-lactate dehydrogenase. The molecular…

To test the hypothesis that adding course structure may encourage self-regulated learning skills resulting in an increase in student exam performance in the community college setting, we added daily preclass online, open-book reading quizzes to an introductory biology course. We compared three control terms without reading quizzes and three…

Instructors communicate what they value about students' written work through their comments and feedback, and this feedback has the potential to direct how students approach writing assignments. In this study, we examined how graduate student teaching assistants (TAs) attended and responded to students' written lab reports in an introductory…

A simple and reliable didactic laboratory has been developed to illustrate fundamental concepts of hydrophilicity, hydrophobicity, wetting, and spreading phenomena for undergraduate students. The described laboratory includes preparation of surfactant solutions at different concentrations and applying droplets of these solutions on a hydrophobic…

Although the potent effects of cation-p interactions for stabilizing protein structure and binding ligands to proteins have been reported in the chemical literature for over two decades, there are no undergraduate biochemistry textbooks covering this important noncovalent attractive force. In an attempt to remedy this situation, this primer…

Several active-learning pedagogies involve groups of students working together to construct their own understanding of course content. In these classrooms, the instructor serves as a facilitator of learning, by interacting with every group, engaging students in discussions, answering questions, and providing formative feedback. This type of…

Collaboration between chemistry lecturers and literacy lecturers led to the development and implementation of an interdisciplinary project with the object of addressing two pertinent challenges in chemistry education. The first challenge is the tendency of students to approach different topics in science as separate units of knowledge, which…