This review extends on previously reported findings in which students were asked to construct Reaction Coordinate Diagrams (RCDs) de novo. Instead of asking students to construct RCDs, this study explores students' understanding of kinetics and thermodynamics when provided with mechanisms for the Aldol and Claisen condensations. Data was collected…

Productive problem solving, concept construction, and sense making occur through the core process of abstraction. Although the capacity for domain-general abstraction is developed at a young age, the role of abstraction in increasingly complex and disciplinary environments, such as those encountered in undergraduate STEM education, is not well…

When Mentos candies are dropped into a bottle of Diet Coke, a foamy fountain jets out of the beverage container. It has previously been argued that ingredients found in Mentos candies significantly enhance this fountaining effect. Other previous work has demonstrated that the kinetics of foam production can be quantitatively monitored using a…

This article describes a straightforward approach to deliver an enzyme assay and kinetics laboratory via online delivery methods in the time of COVID-19.

The Reaction Coordinate Diagram Inventory (RCDI) was developed to measure chemistry students' thinking and confidence when interpreting the kinetic and thermodynamic information encoded within reaction coordinate diagrams (RCDs). The RCDI was designed based upon analyses of qualitative data collected in semi-structured interviews with general…

Existing accounts of student thinking about mechanical wave propagation and superposition emphasize that students sometimes treat wave pulses as objects, saying, for example, that pulses bounce off of one another when they meet. In this paper, we present a context in which students explicitly reason about pulses as not-objects, instead describing…

Many introductory physics courses begin with the teaching of motion and kinematics. This naturally leads to the use of constant acceleration equations to solve various problems involving common motions (free fall being a notable example). Students can sometimes get the impression that these equations are the only thing they need to remember in…

Herein we present a modified iodine clock experiment which replaces starch with cellulose paper. This provides the reaction with a white solid surface in which color change can be clearly observed and reduces reagent amounts required to 540 µL per group. After data acquisition, students are required to calculate reaction orders and the reaction…

The Kicking Mule Brewing Co. at West Point enables members of our chemical engineering club, students, and beer enthusiasts alike to acquire chemical engineering acumen, knowledge, and skills by developing a tangible product. Through a rigorous on-site brewing process with subject matter experts, our goal is enhancement of student chemical…

The development of good learning resources on inquiry learning model with science literacy as a strategy to facilitate active learning has become a trend in education. Critical thinking ability is needed as a strategy to build students competencies in problem solving and discovery as required in science learning. This study aims to develop a set…

One challenge for the introductory physics teacher is incorporating calculus techniques into the laboratory setting. It can be difficult to strike a balance between presenting an experimental task for which calculus is essential and making the mathematics accessible to learners who may be apprehensive about applying it. One-dimensional kinematics…

A Unit Operations Laboratory (UOL) is fundamental to undergraduate chemical engineering education. This article discusses a new course structure for the University of Kansas UOL and details for three new experiments covering the fundamentals of vapor-liquid equilibrium, fluid mechanics, and kinetics. Students apply knowledge from these courses as…

Teaching practical chemistry skills remotely is not a task that would have been high on the agenda only a few months ago. However, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, students around the world are having to work from home, and the chemistry education community has been forced to adapt to the new circumstances. In response, we discuss the use of…

The oxidation of iron is an important reaction due to its high economic impact. In this laboratory exploration, the total order of this reaction was determined using commercially available handwarmer packets that rely on the iron-oxygen reaction to generate heat. The active ingredient in the handwarmer packet is iron, which interacts with…

Models related to the topic of chemical kinetics are critical for predicting and explaining chemical reactivity. Here we present a qualitative study of 15 general chemistry students' reasoning about a method of initial rates task. We asked students to discuss their understanding of the terms rate law and initial rate, and then analyze rate and…