Recently, there have been many calls for an increase in instruction on the nature of science (NOS) in schools (i.e. NRC, 1996; NGSS Lead States, 2013). These calls recognize the importance of this topic at all levels of science education, but there is little guidance in terms of how to address it effectively in curricula. Similarly, there have…

The transition from high school to tertiary education can be a daunting prospect for students. The prospect of laboratories, an unfamiliar environment, for students, can increase levels of anxiety. Moreover, there is a growing body of evidence that suggests that students' self-efficacy is inversely correlated with students' anxiety. We surveyed…

Electrostatic potential maps (EPMs) allow for representation of key molecular-level information in a relatively simple and inexpensive format. As these visualizations become more prevalent in instruction, it is important to determine how students are exposed to them and supported in their use. A systematic review of current general and organic…

Metacognitive monitoring of one's own understanding plays a key role in learning. An aspect of metacognitive monitoring can be measured by comparing a student's prediction or postdiction of performance (a judgment made before or after completing the relevant task) with the student's actual performance. In this study, we investigated students'…

In a course on chemical applications of symmetry and group theory, students learn to use several useful tools (like character tables, projection operators, and correlation tables), but in the process of learning the mathematical details, they often miss the conceptual big picture about "why" and "how" symmetry leads to the…

Recent science education reform efforts have emphasized scientific practices in addition to scientific knowledge. Less work has been done at the tertiary level to consider students' engagement in scientific practices. In this work, we consider physical chemistry students' engagement in argumentation and construction of causal explanations.…

The modern world can be described as a globalized risk society. It is characterized by increasing complexity, unpredictable consequences of techno-scientific innovations and production, and its environmental consequences. Therefore, chemistry, just like many other knowledge areas, is in an ongoing process of "environmentalization." For…

This study presents our attempt to elicit students' progression in understanding the matter concept. Past work has identified the big ideas about matter students need to understand, the many everyday understandings students hold about these ideas, and levels of understanding through which students progress in developing understanding of the big…

Concentration of solutions problems are among the most important and at the same time one of the most challenging topics in chemistry. The aim of this study was to determine the sources of the difficulty that students often face when performing calculations related to concentration. The study involved 153 tertiary college students (food science,…

Demonstration shows are a widely used form of Informal Science Education. While there is evidence that the shows are highly enjoyable, little work has been done to investigate the cognitive impacts of these shows. This article describes the development and production of "The Boiling Point," a show that uses the structure of a play to…

A facile, discovery-based experiment is described that introduces aliphatic substitution in an introductory undergraduate organic chemistry curriculum. Unlike other discovery-based experiments that examine substitution using two competing nucleophiles with a single electrophile, this experiment compares two isomeric, competing electrophiles…

Implementing the case study method in a practical X-ray crystallography course designed for graduate or upper-level undergraduate chemistry students is described. Compared with a traditional lecture format, assigning small groups of students to examine literature case studies encourages more active engagement with the course material and…

BufCap TOPOS is free software that generates 3-D topographical surfaces ("topos") for acid-base equilibrium studies. It portrays pH and buffer capacity behavior during titration and dilution procedures. Topo surfaces are created by plotting computed pH and buffer capacity values above a composition grid with volume of NaOH as the x axis…

The objective of this article is to explain and provide rubrics for science and communication faculty as a means to help nonscience students, in basic science classes, understand that proper communication and presentation skills are a necessity in all courses and future walks of life.

This experiment was designed and successfully introduced to complement the nanochemistry taught to undergraduate students in a useful and interesting way. Colloidal Ag nanoparticles were synthesized by a simple, room-temperature method, and the resulting suspension was then used to study the surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) of methylene…