My thesis work is focused on conceptual and epistemic learning and characterizing the environments in which this learning takes place. Earlier studies conducted by the Stowe group explored how instructional practices, instructional emphasis, and assessment emphasis relate to student outcomes in general and organic chemistry courses. Student…

Laboratory work in chemistry has been extensively researched in the last decade but the gap between research and practice is still broad. This "Perspective" shares 10 guiding principles relating to university laboratory education, drawing on research over the last decade. Written with an audience of practitioners in mind, the…

The most important learning objective in green chemistry education is the ability to identify the synthesis, process, or chemical that is least environmentally harmful. Existing metrics fall short for different reasons. Mass-based metrics fail to assess environmental harm, while life cycle assessment (LCA) is much too complex to insert into the…

Science and engineering practices (SEPs) and crosscutting concepts (CCs) constitute a significant part of "A Framework for K-12 Science Education" (NRC 2012). As teachers, the role of the authors is to highlight the pivotal role that both scientific knowledge and the practices used to generate knowledge play in learning. This article…

Green and sustainable chemistry (GSC) will become ever more central to the study of chemistry. This is demonstrated by commitments from the American Chemical Society, particularly the Committee on Professional Training and the Green Chemistry Institute, and the United Nations (UN Sustainable Development Goals), which underscore the urgent need for…

The ability to express scientific concepts in mathematical terms and integrate scientific and mathematical reasoning about a phenomenon is a foundational cognitive process involved in scientific thinking. This process called "blended math-science sensemaking" (MSS) is a desired skill for all science, technology, engineering, and math…

Design activities are gaining interest as rich contexts for learning science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects. STEM teachers may find this challenging however, as designing requires support that they are not used to providing. In a subject like chemistry, teachers would have to balance creativity and responsibility for the…

Escape rooms are making their way into the chemistry classroom as a learning tool. However, escape rooms require a large amount of preparation and setup, and they are only novel and exciting for a single play-through. For escape room games to be incorporated into multiple class periods, they must be streamlined for reuse. In this work, I introduce…

Integrating science and engineering has become a focal point for current research in science and STEM educational fields. Infusing engineering design as an application of scientific principles is beneficial, as it demonstrates an authentic, real-world application and allows for not only student engagement and enthusiasm, but also an avenue to…

The periodic table is a fundamental tool used in chemistry classes that allows students to systematically understand different types of elements and their physical and chemical properties. While many textbooks emphasize the historical process of classifying substances, they often superficially elucidate the achievements of chemists such as Dmitry…

It is the responsibility of chemistry educators to identify and implement instructional strategies, such as introducing educational board games that can foster active and constructive learning and promote an enjoyable learning experience. This study aimed to design, develop, and evaluate a board game that has the potential to be used as a…

Atomic orbitals represent an essential construct used to develop chemical bonding models, upon which other more advanced chemistry topics are built. In this article, we share a series of active-learning activities and a gamified approach to develop students' representational competence about atomic orbitals and to engage students in learning the…

Teaching natural sciences can be challenging, especially with unmotivated or disinterested students. The challenge increases when the term "Didactics" appears in the subjects under study, for example, with Didactics of Natural Sciences. The present work details the design and execution process of an escape room experience used as a…

Frost diagrams provide convenient illustrations of the aqueous reduction potentials and thermodynamic tendencies of different oxidation states of an element. Undergraduate textbooks often describe the lowest point on a Frost diagram as the most stable oxidation state of the element, but this interpretation is misleading because the thermodynamic…

Students tend to think of their science courses as isolated and unrelated to each other, making it difficult for them to see connections across disciplines. In addition, many existing science assessments target rote memorization and algorithmic problem-solving skills. Here, we describe the development, implementation, and evaluation of an activity…