Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) are increasingly popular, but less often implemented in core laboratory courses due to the strict learning objectives necessary for follow-on courses. A curricular core intermediate-level experimental biosciences laboratory course was implemented, which paired competency-based assignments…

Students in undergraduate Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) programs with an interest in audiology often report feeling unprepared to make career and graduate school decisions due to a lack of exposure to the field. The present study examines the impact of near-peer mentoring and hands-on lab experiences on undergraduate student…

The laboratory course in organic chemistry for preservice chemistry teachers has been designed anew. For the course, only 2 weeks (8 h a day) are available. Therefore, we wanted to use this time effectively, which led to the following main goals: the students should achieve practical skills, understand the practical procedures they had to conduct,…

Acid-base titration laboratories are perennially offered to general chemistry students in preparation for summative assessments of their hands-on and quantitative skills in the field. Here, we present a guided inquiry-based activity focused on total titratable acidity (TTA) as alternative to standard "cookbook" titration laboratory work.…

A fluorometer is a device that measures the spectroscopic properties of fluorescent materials, and fluorometry is used widely in chemistry research settings to characterize fluorescent samples. One of the obstacles faced by undergraduate programs looking to implement fluorometer-based experiments into their laboratory curriculum is the high cost…

A case study of the COVID-19 pandemic's impact in a nonmajor chemistry class is presented. The prepandemic student engagement strategy focused on student identity within the microcommunity of the face-to-face class. The sudden switch to online instruction mandated a series of changes. Topic-specific adjustments were made within the broader frame…

The most effective teaching and learning environments are those in which students are involved as active partners with faculty, and the greatest impact occurs when faculty go beyond asking students for feedback and instead involve them in design, production, and implementation. In this paper, we explore the process of student-faculty co-creation…

Accidents occur in laboratories due to a lack of proper knowledge regarding laboratory safety measures, perilous attitudes, and unacceptable laboratory practices. This study assessed the chemistry laboratory safety knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of teachers and laboratory technicians in secondary schools of South Wollo, Ethiopia. The…

With the benefits of low cost, energy efficiency, and environmental protection, photocatalytic hydrogen production is considered to be the most promising technology for the development of a clean and sustainable society. However, the utilization of photocatalytically generated hydrogen is not very common yet. Therefore, tertiary education urgently…

This activity introduces droplet-based millifluidics and the usage of aqueous droplets as independent chemical microreactors for reaction-kinetics studies. Students build their own droplet generators from common macroscopic glassware and connecting parts to create trains of millimeter-sized droplets in which a redox reaction takes place. The…

The Spring 2020 semester students were faced with the challenge of adjusting how they learned in the middle of the semester, as the situation changed from instructors holding group office hours and study sessions for the upcoming midterm exams to faculty and students scrambling to gather their belongings before the impending lockdown. Immediately…

The role of the school science laboratory, once taken for granted as verification of taught theory using prescribed ('cookbook' to critics) practical activities, has become less clear since the emergence of the 'inquiry' paradigm in which the school laboratory would appear to become a make-believe science research laboratory. But a school science…

Students in environmental sciences, ecology, or wildlife management are often reluctant to acquire training in basic laboratory techniques. To advocate the importance of this training, we reviewed literature in the fields of biological and environmental science for one frequently used technique--centrifugation--and evaluated whether centrifugation…

Laboratory report assignments for non-major and introductory classes can be challenging because the students are unfamiliar with the type of technical writing required and the subject matter. These issues for the student make the grading for the instructor difficult and time consuming. Determining the level of detail to require, the format, and…

An easily constructed and inexpensive polarimeter with an optical rotation angle resolution of about 0.5° is presented. It is made from small pieces of polarizing film, 2 LEDs, a protractor, and a few wires, all held in place with plastic interlocking toy bricks, such as Lego bricks. The instrument was used to demonstrate the optical rotation of…