Laboratory safety regulations have been traditionally viewed by its learners and practitioners as a matter of law and policy, which simply requires compliance. A compliance mindset tends be passive and dissociates individuals (or even institutions) from the important reasons and principles underlying the safety rules and regulations, leading to…

Efforts to encourage laboratory automation through student access to and usage of commercial equipment are hampered by prohibitive acquisition costs. Here, an automated liquid handler using manual pipettes was developed to operate on a commercial hobbyist 3D printer at a cost of US $325. Arising from an iterative design process that ensured…

Bacteria have developed a cell-to-cell communication system called quorum sensing (QS), allowing them to regulate group behavior and synchronize the expression of virulence factors, responsible for increasing their infection capacity and resistance to antimicrobials. Although the control of microbial infections through the inhibition of microbial…

Raman spectroscopy, a powerful vibrational spectroscopic technique widely used in chemistry, materials science, and environmental analysis, provides critical molecular insights through spectral fingerprints. However, undergraduate students often lack proficiency in optimizing experimental parameters, interpreting vibrational modes, and applying…

An integrated laboratory experience in X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) is designed for undergraduate and graduate students in chemistry, materials science, and other related fields. Focusing on ubiquitous Si, Cu, and their common oxides, students are guided to characterize a series of standard materials by XPS to understand the fundamentals…

Practical work in optics is essential to understand complex abstract phenomena. Consequently, hands-on experiments are part of most physics' curricula, despite the fact that they can be hard to set up and maintain. In this article, we present a virtual laboratory tool, called SHIRE, which allows students to carry out optical experiments from a…

Heart muscle cells, or cardiomyocytes, exhibit intrinsic contractility in vitro. We found that commercially-available mammalian cardiomyocytes serve as an excellent model system for studying the cytoskeleton and cellular contractility, fundamental topics in undergraduate cell and molecular biology courses. Embryonic rat cardiomyocytes were plated…

Increasing diversity in STEM disciplines has been a goal at scientific institutions for many decades. Black representation in STEM, however, has remained critically low at all levels (high school, undergraduate, graduate, and professional) for over 40 years, highlighting the need for innovative strategies that promote and retain Black students and…

This article describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of the gamification of laboratory activities in a General Chemistry course at the Federal University of Ceará in Brazil. In the gamified laboratory, seven experiments traditionally performed in the course were transformed into ten missions, incorporating game elements such as…

Pedagogical approaches for supporting students' argumentative writing in science laboratories have not been fully established. This article examines the development of argumentative abilities in undergraduate students enrolled in chemistry laboratory courses that employed two teaching sequences: (i) an argumentative writing workshop for conceptual…

Advances in the field of Mind, Brain, and Education (MBE) have been limited by a fundamental separation between university-based neuroscience laboratories and school communities, constraining the field's ability to collaboratively devise research studies germane to child development. This commentary explores the assertion that the persistent…

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) rapidly have become more common in biology laboratory courses. The effort to implement CUREs has stimulated attempts to differentiate CUREs from other types of laboratory teaching. The Laboratory Course Assessment Survey (LCAS) was developed to measure students' perceptions of how frequently…

Engaging in laboratory practical activities, developing laboratory practical skills, and, to a degree, even wearing laboratory protective equipment such as safety coats and goggles are all quintessential components of chemistry education. It is becoming quite common for institutions to invest in large-scale chemistry teaching laboratories, filling…

The American Chemical Society advocates a shift from rule-based to risk-based safety education for chemistry graduates, emphasizing meaningful student engagement in the risk assessment process for laboratory work. To implement this paradigm shift, we introduced RAMP (Recognize Hazards, Assess Risk, Minimize Risk, and Prevent Emergencies)-based…

This paper outlines a comprehensive teaching laboratory course program that centers on titration analysis, a timeless and essential technique in analytical chemistry spanning various disciplines, such as environmental science, medicine, and industry. In these fields, titration analysis is paramount for determining the concentrations of substances…