Research experiences are widely understood to be valuable for the intellectual and professional development of undergraduate science students. Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) have become popular as a means of engaging large numbers of students in research by leveraging institutional supports for laboratory courses. At…

A green chemistry experiment is presented for teaching an undergraduate quantitative analysis/analytical chemistry laboratory class through the use of black tea leaf extract for the determination of iron in supplement tablets. Dried tea leaf is a safe, low cost, and widely available source of natural extract that can be used in place of more toxic…

Student belongingness is important for successful study paths, and group work forms an important part of modern university physics education. To study the group dynamics of introductory physics students at the University of Helsinki, we collected network data from seven laboratory course sections of approximately 20 students each for seven…

Learning with hands-on experiments can be supported by providing essential information virtually during lab work. Augmented reality (AR) appears especially suitable for presenting information during experimentation, as it can be used to integrate both physical and virtual lab work. Virtual information can be displayed in close spatial proximity to…

Multimodality is recognized as a useful pedagogical tool, but it is often difficult to apply in real-life curricula. Further, expectations on educators and various campus units are increasingly complex and require nimble and innovative partnerships. In this article, Christina, a first-year composition instructor, and Lucie, the university's…

This paper describes a learning experience designed to introduce students in a Micro- and Nanosystems course in a Physics Bachelor's degree program to the use of professional tools for the design and characterization of micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) through a specific commercial case: the MEMS used by the well-known gaming platform…

A continuous effort within an undergraduate university setting is to improve students' learning outcomes and thus improve students' attitudes about a particular field of study. This is undoubtedly relevant within a chemistry laboratory. This paper reports the results of an effort to introduce a problem-based learning strategy into the analytical…

Surveillance cameras are prevalent in various public and private areas, and they can also be coupled to optical microscopes and telescopes with excellent results. They are relatively simple cameras without sophisticated technological features and are much less expensive and more accessible to many people. These features enable them to be used in…

This paper reports on a study of teacher support in a setting where students engaged with computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) in science. The empirical basis is an intervention study where secondary school students and their teacher performed a lab experiment in genetics supported by a digital learning environment. The analytical…

Engaging undergraduates in research is essential for teaching them to think like scientists, and it has become a desired component of classroom and laboratory instruction. Research projects that span an entire semester expose students to a variety of concepts and techniques and allow students to use experiments to learn scientific principles,…

A simple adaptation of traditional "chemistry kit" condensers for the organic chemistry teaching laboratory is described. These waterless condensers have been employed safely with most solvents. They can be easily fabricated, stored, and used in the same manner as water-cooled condensers. These condensers were utilized in several…

Background: Native Americans are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). We investigated whether having to violate cultural taboos might be a factor in the decisions of some Native Americans not to pursue STEM degrees. Many STEM faculty likely know very little about Native Americans' historical experiences…

This paper reports on the contribution to biological knowledge of three different laboratory technologies and also endeavours to discover which technology students prefer the most. To examine differences in knowledge gained and learners' preferences for different technologies in biology laboratory work, we prepared three variants (triplets) of…

This paper presents a blended-learning strategy for improving the teaching method applied in the laboratory subject Manufacturing Technologies. The teaching method has been changed from a predominantly teacher-centred to an active learning system with a student-centred focus and e-learning activities. In face-to-face classes, a game-based learning…

In this paper, we propose a novel approach in hardware and software architecture design for implementation of remote laboratories for automatic control. In our contribution, we show the solution with flexible connectivity at back-end, providing features of multipurpose usage with different types of experimental devices, and fully configurable…