One critical objective of high-quality education is to provide citizens literate in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) to ensure economic success (as reported by Newcombe (Harnessing spatial thinking to support STEM learning (OECD Education Working Papers, No. 161), OECD Publishing, Paris, 2017). Many studies have found a…

This essay addresses the importance of in-class exercises that intentionally lead students into moments of self-encounter, and demonstrates how theology classes can incorporate such exercises. It does so by outlining three specific examples from three different class settings. These exercises facilitate students getting to know themselves deeply…

A series of distinctive gap-fill activities were designed to provide practice and test students' knowledge in retrosynthetic analysis. Developed and tested during the COVID-19 pandemic, the activities allow students to work through authentic multistep syntheses of various organic target molecules. Students were asked to identify appropriate RSA…

Teaching intercultural communication presents many challenges, particularly at predominantly white institutions (PWI). Individuals who hold majority identities may have difficulty seeing their own culture or race and, relatedly, the value of intercultural communication for their lives. Additionally, students who hold marginalized or minoritized…

This article takes an arts-based approach to unmasking the (wounded) naming histories of public schools within a 20-miles radius of a university in central Florida. It applies an artistic methodology that was inspired by the abstract artwork of Mark Bradford. Through the application of this methodology (e.g. research, layer, excavate), the authors…

The article presents simple outdoor experiments for measuring illuminance on inclined surfaces with a luxmeter. A hill model is used to investigate the difference in illuminance between a sunny side and a shady side of a hill, with up to a fivefold difference found between the two sides on a sunny day. The illuminance of the sunny side of the hill…

Here we demonstrate an inexpensive and straightforward electronic circuit that can be used to generate data in the form of counts, with the same statistical properties as those found in gamma-ray counting experiments. The circuit holds an avalanche Zener diode just below its Zener voltage, which allows for thermal electrons to traverse the in the…

Although they commonly are associated with recreation, summer camps for children can be seen as educational arenas that both supplement and challenge school education. Summer camps provide education in a broad sense of "bildung." The article aims at describing what is experienced in summer camps and proposes various theoretical frames…

An educational activity is proposed that uses software for proteomic analysis and databases available for free on the Internet to estimate the structure and function of a hypothetical protein from its coding nucleotide sequence. This bioinformatics activity is recommended for integrated introductory courses that address the structure function…

Computational chemistry modeling activities that took place as part of a course in physical chemistry are described. The main software tools used by the students were Avogadro and ORCA, which are freely available on the Internet for academic use. Avogadro is molecular visualization software, which can be used not only to prepare input files for a…

In this work, different alternatives for locating the optimal feed stage in a distillation column as well as the effect of the feed temperature are studied, by solving a classroom problem. The results obtained permit us to select the best way to optimize the feed stage location as well as to detect what thermal feed phase conditions should be…

Philosophers of education as well as philosophers, sociologists and other theoreticians are searching for new models and interpretations of teaching, using new concepts, "transversality" being one of them. Some treat the new ways based on transversal competence as an augmentation of neoliberal power and its influence at school, some, on…

This study focuses on connections between linear functions and their graphs that were made by tertiary remedial algebra students. In particular, we describe students' work on a Task designed to examine the connection between points on a graph and the equation of a line. The data consist of 63 responses to a written questionnaire and individual…

Proteopedia (proteopedia.org) is an open resource to explore the structure--function relationship of proteins and other biomolecules. This guide provides practical advice on how to incorporate Proteopedia into teaching the structure and function of proteins and other biomolecules. For 11 activities, we discuss desired outcomes, setting…

In this experiment, students explore the synthesis and physical property characterization of the magnetic material strontium hexaferrite (SrFe[subscript 12]O[subscript 19]). SrFe[subscript 12]O[subscript 19] crystallites are prepared by a simple but fascinating sol-gel autocombustion synthesis. The prepared powder is compacted into pellets and…