As the dual crises of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and worsening climate change show, the public must be accurately informed about science. However, many barriers hinder effective messaging about science to the public, including little formal communication training for scientists and an abundance of misleading information from nonscientific…

The scope of the chemical engineering curriculum has increased over time with the addition of new content such as coding and sustainability. This study aimed to identify the specific career paths of 311 chemical engineering students from the University of Kentucky (Lexington and Paducah) over the past five years. We also explored job placement of…

The transition to a remote teaching and learning environment was quick and painful at times, and yet it was a learning experience for everyone. The chemists at Centre College utilized new (to them) technology to reimagine the typical face-to-face interactions with students and colleagues. From Slack to Pear Deck to Zoom classrooms, the faculty and…

A university geology department partnered with a STEM-focused high school to introduce project-based learning-centered geoscience content at the ninth-grade level. We hypothesized that these students, already interested in science, would be a natural recruitment pool into geoscience. Because they are enrolled by lottery, their demographics match…

The following case study presents an approach to teaching research courses in undergraduate exercise science programs. Research courses are commonly required in the curriculum for this degree. Service learning (SL) is an effective way to promote student learning outcomes (SLOs) by providing hands-on experience for the students, and should be…

Molecular orbital diagrams are commonly taught and used for describing chemical bonding chemistry courses including courses at the college level. Misconceptions that occur when students construct and/or use these diagrams are difficult to anticipate, diminish the diagram utility, and limit student learning. In this exploratory study, a combination…

STEM teachers are considered one of the most important factors in inspiring high school students in STEM to excite them about the dynamic nature of the STEM fields (PCAST, 2010). Increasing the number of qualified and diverse science and mathematics teachers, especially those working in high-need areas, is of paramount importance. The intention of…

Evolutionary theory is central to the biological sciences, and to critical aspects of everyday life, and yet a significant proportion of Americans reject evolution. Our study sets out to examine the role of a second year college general education course in affecting students' acceptance of evolution. We report three years of data using the Measure…

Many new political science faculty at teaching universities are recent PhD recipients, and are coming to these institutions from research-oriented universities. There are considerable differences between the training for graduate students received at research universities and the expectations for faculty at teaching universities. This essay…

The field of computer science has long been plagued by issues of diversity - in particular, attracting and retaining those historically marginalized in computing contexts. This is a great loss to the field, to the future of innovation, and to society. Perhaps most importantly, it is an incalculable loss to those populations excluded from pursuing…

Current science education reform efforts emphasize teaching K-12 science using hands-on, inquiry activities. For maximum learning and probability of implementation among inservice teachers, these strategies must be modeled in college science courses for preservice teachers. About a decade ago, Morehead State University revised their science…

Student populations are diverse such that different types of learners struggle with traditional didactic instruction. Problem-based learning has existed for several decades, but there is still controversy regarding the optimal mode of instruction to ensure success at all levels of students' past achievement. The present study addressed this…

The Department of Physics at EKU [Eastern Kentucky University] with support from the National Science Foundations Course Curriculum and Laboratory Improvement Program has successfully converted our entire introductory physics sequence, both algebra-based and calculus-based courses, to an activity-based format where laboratory activities,…

This communication summarizes one of the invited papers to the Flipped Classroom ACS Division of Chemical Education Committee on Computers in Chemical Education online ConfChem held from May 18 to June 24, 2014. Just in Time Teaching is a technique in which students read the material before class and respond to a few questions. In a first-year…

Many individuals working in library and information organizations do not hold a master of library science (MLS) degree or other specialized library science credential. Recognizing that this professional gap could be addressed by diversified educational opportunities, the W. Frank Steely Library at Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights…