The ability to "engage in argument from evidence" is one of the eight practices identified in the "Next Generation Science Standards" as well as an emerging focus of undergraduate chemistry curricula. Guiding students to make evidence-based claims that engender argumentation will require faculty to revise conventional…

Research on student argumentation in chemistry laboratories has mainly focused on evaluating the quality of students' arguments and analyzing the structure of such arguments ("i.e." claims, evidence, and rationale). Despite advances in these areas, little is known about the impact of activity framing on the nature of student…

Laboratory experience and skills are not only essential for success in science studies, but are the most exciting and rewarding aspects of science for students. As a result, many biology teachers have become critical of the efficacy of cookbook-type laboratory activities as well as the purposes, practices, and learning outcomes of lab experiments…

Evaluating the strength of evidence in noisy data is a critical step in scientific thinking that typically relies on statistics. Students without statistical training will benefit from heuristic models that highlight the logic of statistical analysis. The likelihood associated with various coin-tossing outcomes gives students such a model. There…

The Science Writing Heuristic (SWH) is an instructional technique that combines inquiry, collaborative learning, and writing to change the nature of the chemistry laboratory for students and instructors. The SWH provides a format for students to guide their discussions, their thinking, and writing about how science activities relate to their own…