The switch to online instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic forced educators to adapt hands-on environmental engineering experiments to a remote curriculum previously conducted in a laboratory using expensive analytical instruments (>$2000 per device). Here, we describe how we developed a low-cost (<$200) aerosol sensor platform as a…

The focus in teaching and research is shifting from a traditional perspective of information literacy (IL) as a specific set of general, mostly text-based skills to a more comprehensive understanding of the complex aspects that constitute IL as an ongoing, context-specific process. However, there is a need for further insight into the social and…

Sustainability transitions need professionals with specific skills and attitudes that students often do not develop in their regular chemistry education. To foster sustainability change-maker competencies, we suggest augmenting higher education curricula, e.g., chemical degree programs, with transdisciplinary challenge-based learning combined with…

Relying on the National-Local Joint Engineering Laboratory and National Chemical Design Competition for college students, a multidimensional education mode presented here combines the advantages of problem-based learning (PBL) and "Conceive-Design-Implement-Operate" (CDIO) approaches, while also overcoming the restrictions of PBL and…

Problem-based learning (PBL) is an acclaimed educational concept for laboratory teaching in chemistry, which significantly affects learner motivation. A central aim of PBL is to overcome educational problems with "cook-book" laboratories. For example, when students receive experimental instructions and apply the instructions similar to…

A Quantitative Analysis Lab class was developed that began with 9 weeks of student preparation for the Quant Escape Game (QEG) where the students learned the fundamentals of quantitative analysis. The preparation was followed by the four-week QEG, an active-learning, cooperative-learning, and problem-based learning experience in which the students…

A service learning course has been developed through which undergraduate science students create problem-based learning materials for use in high school science classes. Undergraduate students research active learning pedagogies with a specific focus on problem-based learning, create original materials to be used in grades 11 and 12 chemistry and…

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…

One of the keys to achieving the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in education is to introduce novel pedagogical strategies into university curricula in order to promote an enhanced acute sense of sustainability in future professionals, teachers, and decision-makers. This paper aims at analyzing the effectiveness of including…

Fluorescence spectroscopy experiments are a frequently taught as part of upper-division teaching laboratories. To expose undergraduate students to an applied fluorescence technique, a corrosion detection method, using quenching, was adapted from authentic research for an instrumental analysis laboratory. In the experiment, students acquire…

This guided-inquiry, upper-division undergraduate organic lab experiment, a hybrid of problem-based learning (PBL); process-oriented, guided-inquiry learning (POGIL); and peer-led team learning (PLTL) has been developed to ease the transition from the undergraduate lab to a research lab environment. The characterization of a mixture of camphor and…

A Sonogashira experiment was transformed into a problem-based learning platform for third-year undergraduate students. Given a target that could be synthesized in a single step, students worked in groups to investigate which method was the best for large-scale production. Through this practical scenario, students learn to conduct a literature…

During problem-based learning sessions, undergraduate students were tasked with answering chemistry-related questions using clicker-handset technology in which the last response made by each handset would override any previous vote. The benefits, if any, of showing cohort responses from clicker questions during versus after polling were explored.…

Service-learning (SL) is an active learning approach that connects the knowledge a student acquires in the classroom to an application that benefits the community. Increasingly popular in the chemistry curriculum, service-learning is reported to provide student benefits including improved cognitive goals; increased academic, interpersonal, and…

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…