Colleges throughout the United States typically expect their students to take at least one course in the sciences to fulfill liberal studies curriculum requirements. For nonscience majors, the choice of science class can include introductory chemistry, introductory biology, and astronomy, among others. Based upon interactions both in and out of…

Citizen science is a research collaboration between scientists and volunteers who provide data for education, conservation, and environmental protection. Volunteers, often the locals in the area, provide data on species occurrence while researchers perform distribution mapping or other data analysis. Social networking sites including Facebook,…

Simple, often artificial problems are normally preferred for introductory lab courses and are restricted to indoor participation. Microtitrations make it possible to leave the lab and study water chemistry directly in the natural environment. An exemplary outdoor challenge is presented here: travertine formation is context-rich, has to be examined…

1000 Future Scientists (1000FSc) is a university extension project developed at the Department of Chemistry in Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). Conducted by the Higher Education Administrative Technicians and Professors, it presents the university to the community by proposing an engaging experience for elementary and high school…

DNA barcoding is an important molecular methodology for species identification that was developed over the last two decades and it should be covered in the biology bachelor curriculum. Here, we present an example of DNA barcoding by sequencing a segment of the 28S nuclear ribosomal large subunit rRNA gene of wild mushrooms and framing the…

Started in north-east England in 2015, MammalWeb aims to improve our knowledge of British mammals through the use of motion-sensing camera traps. Fundamental to the project is the involvement of local communities and individuals who act as citizen scientists. They contribute to the collection and analysis of the camera trap photographic data.…

A laboratory-safety course has been developed that is designed to introduce first-year graduate students to the array of dangers associated with research in the chemical sciences. We describe the challenges of creating an impactful course that seeks to convey practical laboratory-safety information in a classroom setting for students with a…

Low cost, open-source analytical instrumentation has the potential to increase educational outcomes for students and enable large-scale citizen science projects. Many of these instruments rely on smartphones to collect the data, mainly because they can effectively leverage a dramatic price-to-performance ratio of the optical sensors. However,…

"Making" has been used to describe an internally motivated iterative design process that embodies notions of playful building and tinkering. Recently, interest in applying making to PK-12 education has increased. As schools add facilities dedicated to making, there is a need to support teachers in effectively utilizing these makerspaces.…

The abundance of freely available, scientific big data sets can facilitate discovery-based authentic science projects saving time, money, and effort. This is especially true of remotely sensed data, as there is global coverage of Earth's surface spanning several decades that can be used for a multitude of applications. In this article, I present…

Educational modules can play an important part in revitalizing the teaching and learning of complex analysis. At the Westmont College workshop on the subject in June 2014, time was spent generating ideas and creating structures for module proposals. Sharing some of those ideas and giving a few example modules is the main purpose of this paper. The…

A laboratory experiment was developed to enable students to investigate the use of smart hydrogels for potential application in targeted drug delivery. This is challenging for students to explore practically because of the extremely high risks of handling cross-linking agents such as glutaraldehyde. Genipin is a safe and green alternative that has…

We inserted a self-taught molecular modeling project into an otherwise conventional undergraduate chemical-reaction-engineering course. Our objectives were that students should (a) learn with minimal instructor intervention, (b) gain an appreciation for the relationship between molecular structure and, first, macroscopic state functions in…

A chemical engineering PhD student from Purdue University completed an internship at The Dow Chemical Company, evaluating the effect of scale on the hydrodynamics of a trickle bed reactor. A unique aspect of this work was that it arose from an ongoing collaboration, so that the project was within the scope of the graduate student's thesis. This…

The 2021-2040 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Education Strategic Plan is a reflection of the knowledge and dedication of the NOAA education community. Strategic planning provides guidance for NOAA Education and a framework for tracking and reporting progress. This plan builds on the foundation of the 2015-2035 NOAA…