Recently, we saw a forced transition in educational practice from traditional methods to online and virtual learning as higher education, along with nearly all aspects of society, was disrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As many of us have returned to face-to-face instruction, questions remain regarding modes of instruction and what forms of…

Persistence is a major issue facing students, particularly those who are both female and from underrepresented ethnic minorities (URM). A closer look at the variables affecting their commitment and capacity for continuing the pursuit of their goal allows us to better design support systems that bolster persistence. This study tests a structural…

This report leverages state educational agency data to explore the association between Alabama Science in Motion (ASIM) implementation and student outcomes. We conducted this study in Alabama to evaluate the potential of teacher implementation of ASIM lab activities to improve high school level student achievement in science. This study follows a…

The goal of this study was to assess student's laboratory technique learning during online laboratories in response to the transition online caused by COVID-19. From Summer 2020 through Fall 2021 our General Chemistry 1 laboratories were completely online using at-home lab kits and 3 h weekly web conference sessions. Starting Spring 2021 select…

In order to introduce students to the fascinating field of femtochemistry, we propose here a practical laboratory training course conceived for second-year master's students in chemistry. We describe the use of a broadband femtosecond transient absorption (pump-probe) experiment for monitoring a fast light-triggered chemical reaction in solution.…

Contribution: The design of an operating system (OS) experiment course with a gentle learning curve is proposed and a scalable OS experiment platform supporting learning behavior analysis is presented. Background: In the teaching practice of the OS experiment course, several problems were faced. First, the learning curve for the students is too…

The goals for lab instruction are receiving critical attention in the physics education community due to multiple reports and research findings. In this paper, we describe a theoretically motivated scheme to evaluate instructional lab curricula and apply that scheme to three implementations of an electricity and magnetism lab curriculum. The…

Because the escalating loss of species is one of the most serious environmental crises we face, it is vital that students of biology comprehend and can communicate the roles that biodiversity plays in the functioning of ecosystems. Here, we report on a laboratory experiment that has been highly successful in our introductory biology courses at…

Because critical thinking is essential for scientific learning, academics and casual staff struggle to effectively develop students' critical thinking. This study examined the integration of the Research Skill Development (RSD) framework into a Biology course in an Indonesian University and tested how it helped academics and casual staff develop…

Hands-on learning in a laboratory is an integral part of the undergraduate experience for chemistry students. However, with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, an opportunity for this approach was not possible. The pandemic has been forcing instructors to explore the remote setting instead of the laboratory. There are several commercially…

Safe and high-quality water is essential from both the health and environmental perspectives. Water quality is so important that the United Nations has included water in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Thus, the adequate control and treatment of water are necessities. These tasks must be…

A modular experiment for upper-level undergraduate students is presented, featuring the product cycle and process evaluating the quality and quantity of biodiesel obtained from a microalgae feedstock grown under carbon-supplemented and nutrient-deprived conditions. Batch reactors are used to cultivate and harvest microalgae, which undergo…

The combination of organic synthesis and analytical chemistry into a related laboratory experiment is an excellent demonstration of the utility of making a compound to then be used further. Herein we describe an undergraduate laboratory experiment that involves the straightforward synthesis of an internal standard, ethyl 6-acetyloxyhexanoate, for…

We demonstrate that the simplicity of preparing functional microfluidic devices using 3D printing is well suited for undergraduate laboratories. Educational experiments utilizing non-paper-based microfluidic devices are often relegated to well-equipped, resource rich universities because traditional fabrication techniques require specialized and…

Connecting chemical concepts with real-world applications has been demonstrated to increase persistence, student attitudes, and performance. In a one-semester general chemistry course, most laboratory exercises were designed to have direct implications on real-world issues, and students were asked to consider these implications. Students blogged…