College students report stress and anxiety when taking science courses, such as anatomy & physiology. Mindful breathing is a technique that can be used in the classroom before taking exams. To determine the impact of mindful breathing exercises on the student experience, students were randomly assigned to either course sections that included…

We conducted a multiyear project across three institutions to develop an instructional tutorial that supports student understanding of change of basis in quantum mechanics. Building from our previous work, we identified learning goals to guide activity development. The tutorial makes an analogy between spin-1/2 states and a Cartesian coordinate…

Creating meaningful learning environments that support university students in their early STEM courses has become a focus of interest for many universities. This research investigated an active learning environment where students used Ozobot robots to visualize complex concepts such as Metabolism, Photosynthesis and Cellular Respiration in an…

The purpose of this study was to explore how students with high- and low-prior-knowledge employed multiple representations in argumentation evaluation and generation tasks. The argumentation performance and eye-movement behaviors of 96 college students in these tasks were investigated. The number of participants who proposed complex argumentation…

This study aims to investigate the test scores of the three-tier diagnostic chemistry test (TDCT)[three-tier diagnostic tests] and multiple choice chemistry test (MCCT) by response change behaviour (RCB). The study is a descriptive research study aiming to investigate the item response efforts of TDCT[three-tier diagnostic tests] and MCCT in a…

This paper presents results from a randomized experimental design replicated over four semesters that compared students' performance in understanding landform evolution processes as measured by the pretest to posttest score growth between two treatment methods: an online interactive simulation tool and a paper-based exercise. While both methods…

The Kruger-Dunning effect was studied as it related to performance in chemistry courses based on student differences in academic background. Student major was chosen as the classification to look at the effect of students with different interests/specializations. Chemistry majors tended to predict lower performance than biology majors, while…

The pedagogical approach for both didactic and laboratory teaching of anatomy has changed in the last 25 years and continues to evolve; however, assessment of student anatomical knowledge has not changed despite the awareness of Bloom's taxonomy. For economic reasons most schools rely on multiple choice questions (MCQ) that test knowledge mastered…

In a recent study, the 30-question Force Concept Inventory (FCI) was theoretically split into two 14-question "half-length" tests (HFCIs) covering the same set of concepts and producing mean scores that can be equated to those of the original FCI. The HFCIs require less administration time and reduce test-retest issues when different…

A flipped-classroom environment generally strives to create more in-class time for activities that enhance student learning, while shifting some content delivery to outside the classroom through the use of short didactic videos. We compared a flipped-classroom setting with the traditional ("control") setting for an accelerated…

Organic Chemistry is a required course for programs in chemistry, biology, and many health science careers. It has historically been considered a highly challenging course with significant failure rates. As with many science disciplines, the teaching of Organic Chemistry has traditionally focused on unstructured exposition-centered delivery of…

The study investigated the use of Quantum Physics Conceptual Survey (QPCS) in probing student understanding of quantum physics. Altogether 103 Finnish university students responded to QPCS. The mean scores of the student responses were calculated and the test was evaluated using common five indices: Item difficulty index, Item discrimination…

Retrieval practice has been shown to produce significant enhancements in student learning of course information, but the extent to which students make use of retrieval to learn information on their own is unclear. In the current study, students in a large introductory biology course were provided with optional online review questions that could be…

The purpose of this study was to provide quantitative data about the effectiveness of the traditional lecture method of teaching in a college science course in contrast with an interactive case study method of teaching and learning. The study investigated one professor's teaching an Advanced Human Anatomy and Physiology course at Nebraska Wesleyan…

This quantitative study examined levels of achievement in learning outcomes when using a face-to-face dissection lab compared to an online dissection lab. Constructivist theory and Understanding by Design learning framework were at the core of this research study design. Data was collected from 24 health science students at a private Midwestern…