The widespread transition to online teaching as a result of the global pandemic moved chemistry laboratory experiences online. At UBC's Okanagan campus, organic chemistry laboratory instruction was delivered synchronously to maximize student interactions with their teaching assistants. Two methods of online delivery were employed: (1) students…

The article reports three experiments designed to explore heuristics used in comparing the lengths of completed Euclidean Traveling Salesman Problem (E-TSP) tours. The experiments used paired comparisons in which participants judged which of two completed tours of the same point set was shorter. The first experiment manipulated two factors, the…

This article analyzes masculinity and experimental practices within three different physics communities. This work is premised on the understanding that the discipline of physics is not only dominated by men, but also is laden with masculine connotations on a symbolical level, and that this limited and limiting construction of physics has made it…

The Science of Human Health is an undergraduate chemistry course for non-science majors. This course presents chemistry content following a systems thinking approach and was created with the goal of providing students with the necessary chemistry foundation to make informed decisions which will affect their own well-being and their global…

To investigate how early elementary science and technology (S&T) education, with hands-on experimentation and inquiry-based learning, impacts pre-service teachers' attitudes and confidence to teach S&T education, we used a cross-sectional survey. Our participants were 27 pre-service teachers enrolled in an Ontario elementary S&T…

Traditional, template physics labs are often associated with student dissatisfaction and superficial applications, and are known to leave students with fragmented knowledge. An alternative known as labatorials, a conceptually driven approach to labs, has been proposed. In a number of studies, labatorials have been shown to work well. However, what…

New experiments for undergraduate students are needed to stimulate experiential learning in the laboratory while providing valuable training for future career development. Iodine deficiency remains a major public health concern that is monitored by measuring the median urinary iodide concentration of a population. In this context, we have…

The rise in carbon dioxide (CO[subscript 2]) concentration in the Earth's atmosphere, and the associated strengthening of the greenhouse effect, requires the development of low carbon technologies. New carbon capture processes are being developed to remove CO[subscript 2] that would otherwise be emitted from industrial processes and fossil fuel…

The word length effect, better recall of lists of short (fewer syllables) than long (more syllables) words has been termed a benchmark effect of working memory. Despite this, experiments on the word length effect can yield quite different results depending on set size and stimulus properties. Seven experiments are reported that address these 2…

Reconstructing memory for sequences is a complex process, likely involving multiple sources of information. In 3 experiments, we examined the source(s) of information that might underlie the ability to accurately place an event within a temporal context. The task was to estimate, after studying each list, the temporal position of a single test…

This study explored practices that Canadian soil scientists use to educate postsecondary students, K-12 students, and the general public. The most commonly used type of educational activities described by survey respondents, regardless of the settings and the type of target audience, were field-based hands-on activities. The other two commonly…

Three experiments investigated the learning of simple associations in a color-word contingency task. Participants responded manually to the print colors of 3 words, with each word associated strongly to 1 of the 3 colors and weakly to the other 2 colors. Despite the words being irrelevant, response times to high-contingency stimuli and to…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore students' perceptions to changes to the learning environment of their undergraduate physics laboratories, in which their scientific inquiry processes were stimulated. Design/methodology/approach: The activities students engaged in were redesigned to reflect a guided inquiry approach and to…

Almost all commercial quadrupole ICP-MS instruments use collision/reaction cells to either attenuate spectral interferences or shift the analyte of interest to an interference-free "m/z" (e.g., by O addition). A laboratory practical was developed to introduce the students to the basic operating principles of ICP-MS using a hands-on…

A multistep synthesis of thieno[2,3-"b"]pyridine derivatives is described that is suitable for the upper-level undergraduate organic laboratory. This experiment exposes students to various hands-on experimental techniques as well as methods of product characterization such as IR and [superscript 1]H NMR spectroscopy, and…