With the increase of waste paper, environmental pollution and atmospheric impact have become global problems. The cellulose contained in waste paper has the advantages of being renewable and biodegradable and can be applied to many fields to achieve sustainable development. At present, thermal management materials, as a new type of material, have…

The plate and frame filtration experiment is one of the essential experiments performed by undergraduate students during their practical education. While this experiment often relies on the conventional manual recording of data and calculation, there are frequent problems with data collection because capturing transient data of filtrate volume and…

Although Christians comprise the majority of the population in the United States, they make up less than one third of the scientific community. This underrepresentation is attributed to the desire to avoid the secular culture in academia or self-selection due to a perceived incompatibility or belief in negative stereotypes of Christian scientists.…

A drug discovery project has been successfully implemented in an advanced undergraduate organic chemistry laboratory. In the laboratory, a five-step synthetic sequence is used to prepare five analogues of 13-phenyl-1-tridecanol. These compounds are key precursors in the synthesis of 2-oxo-14-phenyltetradecanes. This class of compounds, isolated…

Multistep synthesis is a key capstone experience in organic laboratory instruction. Here, a four-step synthesis of avobenzone, an active component in sunscreens, has been developed that can be completed in two 4 h laboratory periods. This synthesis incorporates green principles and includes an aldol condensation, electrophilic addition of bromine…

The Bee the CURE is a novel course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) that engages introductory biology students in DNA barcoding (DNA extraction, amplification, and bioinformatics) in partnership with the Tucson Bee Collaborative and the University of Arizona. The first iteration of this CURE taught at Pima Community College (PCC)…

The incorporation of socioscientific issues into science teaching to promote students' scientific literacy may require that science teachers reconsider and transform their teaching practices. This study examines the knowledge and considerations involved when two teachers incorporated socioscientific issues into their teaching, with the aim of…

Many scientific concepts and theorems are often abstract and challenging to relate to real-life problems, making it difficult for students to grasp them. Therefore, some researchers have attempted to enhance students' understanding by employing a contextual learning approach, which allows students to apply scientific knowledge to real situations…

This study explored a middle school science teacher's curricular sensemaking in interaction with their use of an educative storyline curriculum, aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards, that was intentionally designed for more opportunities for students' scientific sensemaking. Using a phenomenological case study methodology, we examined…

Background: Integrated science is a ubiquitous school subject that is an amalgamation of science disciplines; its teaching allows topics to be sequenced in any order and given various degrees of coverage and emphasis in the classroom. Ensuring canonical coherence, which is the logical organization of subject matter for effective instruction is…

We designed and evaluated a student laboratory workshop on plant-based vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The workshop focused on hands-on laboratory techniques, including DNA extraction from rice seeds, where the recombinant protein was produced, detection of the transgene, and basic concepts on how vaccines work in the human body to offer…

The switch to online learning required a creative solution to allow for the experiential learning outcomes of the program to be satisfied when access to physical spaces and equipment was restricted. This paper describes a collaborative process between technical and support staff as well as research and teaching faculty that led to the creation of…

A traditional anatomy lab using microscope slides to examine the structures of the integumentary system was enhanced to increase connections to the real world, student engagement, and interest in the topic by adding a forensic storyline where students examined structures of the integument in order to "solve the crime". Student…

Water is one of Earth's fundamental natural systems. It is crucial to foster water literacy in today's global citizens, particularly through formal education. The purpose of this research, in parallel with a study focused on human dimensions of water systems (Mostacedo-Marasovic et al., in press), is to examine water-related K-12 standards for…

Evolution by natural selection is a theory that constitutes a powerful paradigm capable of conveying the teaching-learning of multiple concepts in biology. However, it has been controversial from its formulation to the present, which also affects education. For instance, while some of the basic curricula of primary education in Europe are arranged…