The ACS Guidelines for bachelor's degrees in chemistry call for the curriculum to include polymer chemistry principles and the synthesis of different classes of macromolecules. Organic chemistry can provide an important introduction to polymer chemistry principles, and photochemically induced radical polymerization is one method for generating…

Time-resolved luminescence lifetime measurements are an important photophysical technique. However, access to this technique at the undergraduate level is limited by the expense of the instrumentation needed to create the well-defined light pulses required to measure the luminescence decay of an excited state molecule. We present here an…

Attitudes towards learning chemistry have been little studied in secondary school students, especially regarding dimensions related to problem solving, the molecular atomic perspective of chemistry, and real-world connection of chemistry. In the present study, we first aimed to design and assess the psychometric properties of the attitude to…

This paper describes an innovative method to evaluate students' learning after teaching the topic of stereochemistry using molecular models in an organic chemistry course for second-year pharmacy students at Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University. This method is practical and relevant and directly measures the intended learning skills. It is…

This study was conducted to determine the differences in the conceptual understanding of 52 Turkish students who were taught with a scientific argumentation approach in grade 12 chemistry. The concept test was administered to the participants as a pre-test and post-test, and it contained two questions. The first had two sub-questions had two…

In this study, adults naïve to organic chemistry drew stereoisomers of molecules and explained their drawings. From these explanations, we identified nine strategies that participants expressed during those explanations. Five of the nine strategies referred to properties of the molecule that were explanatorily "irrelevant" to solving the…

Visuospatial thinking is considered crucial for understanding of three-dimensional spatial concepts in STEM disciplines. Despite their importance, little is known about the underlying cognitive processing required to spatially reason and the varied strategies students may employ to solve visuospatial problems. This study seeks to identify and…

Lewis structures are a very important, foundational concept in chemistry. Students usually acquire this knowledge in General Chemistry and need to review it in preparation for Organic Chemistry. However, many students find the task of drawing Lewis structures to be challenging, and not all instructors can budget enough time in class to review this…

IUPAC nomenclature competence (INC)--defined as the ability to name chemical structures using IUPAC rules and draw structures from IUPAC names--is considered a foundational skill in the training of professional chemists. For students of non-European language background, the challenge of acquiring INC is often complicated by the fact that IUPAC…

General chemistry students need to understand the concept of intermolecular forces and use them to predict the properties of materials. To do this, they must create symbolic representations of molecules, relate these to physical observations, and explain them using submicroscopic theoretical constructs. When these concepts are taught separately,…

Traditionally we consider infection to arise from viruses, bacteria and parasites. Prions are infectious proteins without any nucleic acids, and therefore do not represent living things. Despite this, they have the ability to replicate themselves and cause diseases such as mad cow disease (bovine spongiform encepthalopathy) and human…

We present a critical discussion of how chemistry textbooks treat the electrolysis of water and aqueous salt solutions, based on a survey of general chemistry textbooks in English and Korean at secondary and tertiary levels, also informed by the historical background of 19th-century debates. English-language textbooks present various and…

Visuo-semiotic models, such as Lewis structures and ball & stick models, are widely used to enhance students' learning. However, there is limited research about the impact of these models on specific visuo-semiotic reasoning skills. In the current research, we aimed to determine the extent to which physical molecular models could enhance…

Biology and biochemistry students must learn to visualize and comprehend the complex three-dimensional (3D) structures of macromolecules such as proteins or DNA. However, most tools available for teaching biomolecular structures typically operate in two dimensions. Here, we present protocols and pedagogical approaches for using immersive augmented…

Sets of models of molecules (which are of interest for teaching molecular structure, symmetry, and related topics in many chemical disciplines) were prepared and made available either for self-directed 3D-printing or through the 3D-printing company Shapeways providing 3D-printing as a service. This allows teachers to save time on searching for…