This article seeks to use Dewey's interpretation of pragmatism and education as a model for how dominant notions of school exemplify a e. The article argues that Dewey sought to commodify nature as a tool for human progress. This aspect of Dewey's beliefs is further demonstrated in the kind of schooling that is being implemented through…

Exploding pumpkins with rubber bands remains a popular demonstration of the conversion of spring potential energy into kinetic energy. Videos of laughing and squealing children and adults being pelted with pumpkin fragments have millions of hits on YouTube, and the activity has even been featured on talk shows like "The Tonight Show Starring…

Social justice is increasingly being seen as relevant to the science curriculum. We examine the intersection of participatory science, social justice, and higher education in the United States to investigate how instructors can teach about social justice and enhance collaborations to work toward enacting social justice. Participatory science…

The natural sciences, by their very nature, are based on the exploration of the physical world, and digital mobile devices are considered appropriate to support this exploration (Suárez et al., 2018) since they offer the tools that make this investigation more accessible but also ubiquitous (Crompton et al., 2017). Inquiry-based learning is a…

We present the use of an oxygen tolerant controlled radical polymerization (photoinduced electron/energy transfer-reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer polymerization, PET-RAFT) as a simple method for preparing controlled radical polymers in an undergraduate laboratory. Unlike conventional techniques, PET-RAFT polymerizations require no…

Dendrite growth affects material systems across applications as diverse as lithium batteries, organic light emitting diodes, turbine blades, and biological sensors. Their unique crystal structure and ability to physically see growth make for a unique undergraduate laboratory experience. This experiment uses dendrite growth to explore the physical…

Covariational reasoning (or the coordination of two dynamically changing quantities) is central to secondary STEM subjects, but research has yet to fully explore its applicability to elementary and middle-grade levels within various STEM fields. To address this need, we selected a globally referenced STEM assessment--the Trends in International…

A number of scholars have shown the prevalence of multiple metaphors in biological conceptions of the living cell. However, there is little research into unpacking these metaphors to understand their ideological implications for scientific knowledge and science education. In this paper, I perform a critical discourse analysis of the representation…

Despite the current interest in Open Science in the scientific community, it is not clear if Open Science will succeed in higher education. Open Science is based on three basic ideas: open data, open results, and open publication. If these principles can be successfully implemented, it will allow for much greater participation in the scientific…

In practical work focussing on conceptual development, students spend valuable in-class time on collecting data rather than making sense out of it. This provides a barrier to learning about the targeted concept. To address this problem, we developed an approach that we coin "collaborative data collection." Using a practical on the topic…

Pharmaceutical Integrated Experiment (PIE) is a systematic and comprehensive compulsory course for undergraduates majoring in pharmacy and pharmaceutical engineering. This course mainly focuses on integrating the theoretical knowledge of various disciplines into practice, enabling students to master the key processes of drug research and…

Success in general chemistry requires active engagement with course material. COVID-19 accelerated the move to online courses, creating a crucial need for engaging course activities. The Mysterious Compound chemistry game was designed to engage undergraduate students in introductory chemistry concepts while allowing the instructor and students to…

The main difficulty in studying molecular symmetry is the mental manipulation of molecules when searching for symmetry. Numerous methods of teaching molecular symmetry require students to identify symmetry elements of objects or molecules. As an alternative, we propose activity that identifies symmetry using elements outside the objects, together…

Writing instruments, such as pens, are ubiquitous in the classroom, but their functionality is largely for one purpose: they are used to represent ideas and record information on paper. However, by replacing the conventional ink in a pen with easy-to-synthesize conducting polymer-based inks, it is possible to change a simple writing utensil into a…

Due to social distancing constraints during the COVID-19 pandemic, several experiments were designed in the Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 semesters in our Electrochemistry and Corrosion elective course to demonstrate electrochemical phenomena and applications at the students' homes with a kit sent by the school. We report here a student-designed…