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,…

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are a family of synthetic chemicals consisting of carbon, hydrogen, and chlorine atoms. PCBs have been produced commercially since 1929 in hundreds of industrial applications. Their continued production in the United States was phased out in the late 1970s, and strict disposal guidelines were regulated as adverse…

Today, science education demands preparation of scientifically literate people, emphasizing more the process of working with information than owning it. Such a task requires a deep understanding of pedagogical content knowledge by science teachers. This study focuses on revealing the beliefs of prospective chemistry teachers during their teaching…

Introduction: The emerging technology of three-dimensional (3D) printing has the potential to provide unique 3D modeling to support specific content in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, particularly chemistry. Method: Seventeen (n=17) students with visual impairments were provided direct instruction on chemistry…

Research has shown that achieving gender equality in science goes beyond equal gender ratios in the classroom. Female students in science disciplines with relatively higher female participation rates (e.g. biology and chemistry) still experience similar gender issues as students in male-dominated science disciplines (e.g. physics and mathematics).…

The study aims to investigate the effect of context-based learning (CBL) on vocational high school students' chemical literacy of petroleum topics. Through quasi-experimental research with pretest-posttest design, 30 students from the automotive engineering program were assigned as the experimental group, while 31 students from the same school…

A qualitative pre-/post-test case study was conducted to explore the influence of inquiry-based education in eliciting learners' understanding of the particulate nature of matter in the gaseous phase. Two grade four classes (n=116) were conveniently and purposively sampled from two farm schools in Pretoria, South Africa. Data was collected through…

We previously reported that students' concept-building approaches, identified a priori using a cognitive psychology laboratory task, extend to learning complex science, technology, engineering, and mathematics topics. This prior study examined student performance in both general and organic chemistry at a select research institution, after…

Principal component analysis (PCA) is one of the most important and powerful methods in chemometrics as well as in a wealth of other areas. Running a PCA results in two main elements, the score plot and the loading plot; the score plot provides the location of the samples, and the loading plot indicates correlations among variables, the trends in…

In March of 2020, as New York City was becoming the global epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 3 authors, members of the Chemistry Department at Queensborough Community College--City University of New York, had 1 week to move their 13 lecture and laboratory sections of 4 different first-year undergraduate courses plus 2 active undergraduate…

In this communication paper we describe how a research-based approach was applied in Israel to support high-school chemistry teachers, who continued to teach using technology during the COVID-19 pandemic. Within the TPACK (technological pedagogical content knowledge) framework for teachers' knowledge in technological environments, we developed a…

A fast track into online teaching in response to the COVID-19 crisis resulted in the author learning to use online platforms and tools to teach thermodynamics and quantum mechanics courses. These resources were used effectively to teach highly mathematical and challenging concepts, as presented in this communication. Student assessment using…

Effective diffusion of educational innovations is essential for evidence-based practices to have broad impacts on student learning. One of the barriers to such diffusion is the large inertia associated with changing one's teaching practices. Educational disruptions, such as COVID-19, may lower this barrier by making business-as-usual no longer…

The distance teaching of organic chemistry to first-year undergraduate students during lockdown represents a challenge for both students and teachers. To face this challenge, a method combining synchronous and asynchronous teaching was presented in this paper. The asynchronous part of the teaching was achieved through the broadcast of videos on…

Service-learning college courses and service-learning components of traditional courses combine discipline-specific learning objectives with service activities in the community. "Chemistry Discovery" is a one-unit service-learning course focused on chemistry outreach at the University of Arizona. In a collaborative learning environment,…