This paper presents a case study examining the current controversial issue of palm oil production for manufacturing biodiesel in Indonesia. The study looks at how this issue was used as a context to teach chemistry at the undergraduate level. The lesson unit promotes general educational skills, which students need to develop in order to become…

This study explored Indonesian prospective teachers' views on the adapted (including global socio-scientific issues) and revisited (including local socio-scientific issues) versions of the scientific habits of mind (SHOM) scale and compared their SHOM levels concerning teacher education programs and grades. The sample of the study consisted of…

Radiochemistry faces a well-documented training and recruitment crisis. Older radiochemists are retiring, and fewer young people are studying radiochemistry. In turn, this is leading to a shortage in newly qualified radiochemists, as well as a loss of historical knowledge (as know-how is often not passed-on). Here, we analyzed the relevance of the…

Connecting chemical concepts with real-world applications has been demonstrated to increase persistence, student attitudes, and performance. In a one-semester general chemistry course, most laboratory exercises were designed to have direct implications on real-world issues, and students were asked to consider these implications. Students blogged…

Storytelling in chemistry as a pedagogical tool provides an alternative learning format for students to discover more about the people behind STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) innovations that impact our society. However, there is a dearth in the literature on what influence storytelling pedagogy could have on STEM…

Teaching the fundamentals of chemical kinetics on the college level is challenging to teachers and students alike due to its abstract nature of concepts and limited connection with real context applications. This study consisted of two phases starting with designing a chemistry education for the sustainable development-based learning environment…

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices are a hallmark of high-impact pedagogy. Such practices are common in discussions regarding the retention of all students in STEM, but especially those with identities such as Black, Indigenous, persons of color, female, and LGBTQIA+. However, the extent to which DEI-framed content improves alignment…

The aim of this study was to explore how the design of this chemistry lesson for citizenship influences students' use of different perspectives in decision-making about 'the use and sale of laughing gas'. In this study, 'the use and sale of laughing gas among youth' was chosen as a socio-scientific issue. This chemistry lesson for citizenship was…

This paper examines and discusses the views on science and society held among PhD students working in two different industrially and environmentally driven research programmes in the broad area of green chemistry. It is based on thirteen in-depth interviews. The analysis shows three main ways of handling the situation as "post-academic"…

Motivating students in analytical chemistry can be challenging, in part because of the complexity and breadth of topics involved. Some methods that help encourage students and convey real-world relevancy of the material include incorporating environmental issues, research-based lab experiments, and service learning projects. In this paper, we…

Chemistry is an important subject due to understanding the composition and structure of the things around us. The main aim of the study was to find out the perception of chemistry by lower secondary school pupils. The partial aims were to find out the influence of gender, year of study and favorite subject on the perception of chemistry. The…

This article explores the vertical alignment of two high school classes, biology and chemistry, around the core concept of biodiesel fuel production. High school teachers and university faculty members investigated biodiesel as it relates to societal impact through a National Science Foundation Research Experience for Teachers. Using an action…

An upper-level undergraduate course that explores ethics in chemistry and the impact of chemical innovations on society has been developed. Goals of this course were to promote student recognition of ethical considerations in chemical innovations and chemical research and demonstrate the link between the application of chemical innovations and the…

This paper reports on the development of an instrument which was used to gather information on the views of science students on the social responsibility of scientists. The methodology is based on a "Views on Science-Technology-Society (VOSTS)" instrument which was developed in Canada. It involves three phases, employing interviews and…

Presents an activity designed to increase students awareness of the relevance of science. Involves a classroom jury trial to probe a current controversial drug, mifepristone (RU486). Reports that students perceived this to be an enjoyable as well as educational activity which made science more relevant in their lives. (JRH)