We report on the study of student difficulties regarding a heat engine in the context of a Stirling cycle by the method of measurement. An in-class test about a Stirling engine with a regenerator was taken by three classes, and the students were asked to perform one of the most basic activities--calculate the efficiency of the heat engine. Our…

[superscript 1]H NMR spectroscopy is a molecular characterization technique that is ubiquitously used in research and teaching laboratories alike. Strategic deuteration of molecules is a commonly employed technique in the deconvolution of [superscript 1]H NMR signals. Here this approach is applied in a second-year chemistry course in which…

Take-home examinations were utilized during the COVID-19 pandemic for upper-level analytical chemistry lecture courses. The questions were often scenarios which required the students to determine the best type of instrument to use and how to go about the experiment. Answers submitted were well thought out and detailed, showing that the students…

Describing the motion in a vertical roller coaster loop requires a good understanding of Newton's laws, vectors and energy transformation. This paper describes how first-year students try to make sense of force and acceleration in this example of non-uniform circular motion, which was part of a written exam. In addition to an analysis of the exam…

This study is investigating the student-teachers' conception of static electricity in Rwandan teacher training colleges. The study used a pre- and post-intervention design, where two groups of students were randomly assigned in two groups. Along a period of four weeks, one group was taught using the traditional method (TRAD) while another using…

This paper presents a successful, free inquiry experiment in which students devise an experiment to measure carbon dioxide in an important chemical, biological, or environmental situation. Also discussed is rationale for adopting an open inquiry experiment and how it fits into the laboratory as a whole. Typical student projects are given, and data…

The dramatic decrease in the cost of sequencing a human genome is leading to an era in which a wide range of students will benefit from having an understanding of human genetic variation. Since over 90% of sequence variation between humans is in the form of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), a laboratory exercise has been devised in order to…

The first PhD thesis in the field of Chemistry Education at the Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad, was defended in 1992. This can be regarded as the symbolic dawn of Chemistry Education as a scientific discipline in this region. After the official breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, research that had started in the…

In recent years, accreditation standards for international engineering education have led to a dramatic rise in the use of outcome-based education at universities. In this system, enticing new undergraduate students to science and engineering, although challenging, is the first important step toward building students' career competencies. An…

Researchers, instructors, and funding bodies in biology education are unanimous about the importance of developing students' competence in experimental design. Despite this, only limited measures are available for assessing such competence development, especially in the areas of molecular and cellular biology. Also, existing assessments do not…

The educational objectives related to the plasma state of matter, which comprises more than 90% of our universe, are located in the "properties of substances" unit in the 9th grade high school physics course curriculum. If there are physical and technical limitations while performing an experiment, the use of different techniques is…

Terms to be familiar with before you start to solve the test: cell cycle, generation time, S-phase, cell culture synchronization, isotopic pulse-chase labeling, density labeling, equilibrium density-gradient centrifugation, buoyant density, rate-zonal centrifugation, nucleoside, nucleotide, kinase enzymes, polymerization of nucleic acids,…

The physics curriculum is usually defined by content but this does not provide students with an authentic experience of the subject. An alternative is that physics is defined more as a way of thinking and this idea is explored in terms of the purposes of physics education, assessment and the relationship of the subject with other disciplines. A…

The aim of this study is to investigate pre-service teacher's cognitive load types (intrinsic load-IL, extraneous load-EL, and germane load-GL), academic achievements, and affective characteristics (attitude and self-efficacy) at two stages of experimental learning processes. The first and the second groups used explanatory instructional…

Research on learning in the undergraduate chemistry laboratory necessitates an understanding of students' perspectives of learning. Novak's Theory of Meaningful Learning states that the cognitive (thinking), affective (feeling), and psychomotor (doing) domains must be integrated for meaningful learning to occur. The psychomotor domain is the…