Investigating the optical properties of various chemical compounds using UV-vis spectrophotometers is an essential part of education in chemistry. However, commercial spectrophotometers are usually treated as "magic black boxes", where the dominant majority of optical elements are hidden "under the hood". This often limits…

Background: To make students more interested and engaged in science, new teaching approaches have been developed aiming at higher order thinking. Context-based learning approaches emanate from an idea that science content knowledge should be presented in a relevant context for students to improve their learning outcomes as well as making them more…

A range of factors can lead to situations where university courses have to be taught with a very small number of students. In this paper, we report on our experiences of a chemistry course that was especially designed to encourage learning in small groups of students (four to five per course). The course design included inquiry-based approaches,…

Environmental Chemistry covers a range of topics within the discipline of chemistry, from toxicology to legislation, which warrants interdisciplinary study. Consequently, problem-based learning (PBL), a style of student-centered learning which facilitates the integration of multiple subjects, was investigated to determine if it would be a more…