An experimental procedure is presented that was developed by fifth-year chemical engineering and industrial chemistry undergraduates at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro doing the discipline on Experimental Organic Technology. The aim of this study was to apply the solvatochromic effect of the dye Nile Blue chloride to the characterization…

Facile visualization of biomolecules is an essential component of the undergraduate biochemistry curriculum. In the past, a number of tools have been used to display biomolecules. More recently, the advent of greater accessibility to virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) programs has created a new mechanism to visualize biomolecules.…

Suspended on-site instruction during the COVID-19 created an exceptional challenge for teaching hands-on laboratory classes. We designed an online laboratory activity using computational biology techniques to overcome this issue. This set of online exercises introduces bioinformatics skills into existing curricula in the form of guided tutorials…

The current conditions in Indonesia show that student activities in the learning process tend to be passive which impacts factual knowledge. This study aims to analyze the effectiveness of concrete media in improving students' factual knowledge through observing activities. This study was quasi-experimental, designed in a non-equivalent post with…

Educational research supports incorporating active engagement into K-12 education using authentic STEM experiences. While there are discipline-specific resources to provide students with such experiences, there are limited transdisciplinary opportunities that integrate engineering education and technological skill-building to contextualize core…

This article describes a ten week long laboratory exercise designed for undergraduate students aimed at enhancing their understanding of physiological and biochemical responses of plants under dehydration stress. Hypothesis was built around previous reports which suggested that exogenous application of certain elicitors leads to transient…

To promote the integration of aesthetic education into chemistry education, this study designed activities to photograph precipitation reaction experiments with a smartphone, thereby combining experimental inquiry with artistic creation across disciplines. These activities were divided into (i) perceiving, (ii) appreciating, (iii) exploring, and…

Three-dimensional visualization of molecular simulations in virtual reality (VR) is an emerging teaching tool in chemical education. This work describes a VR application which can generate a 3D molecular dynamics (MD) simulation from arbitrary molecular structures and renders that MD simulation trajectory on a VR headset in real-time. This system…

By bringing everyday phenomena into the classroom, teachers can more readily engage students in authentic scientific inquiry. When working with young children, the best phenomena are those that students can directly experience and investigate. Meaningful phenomena can be identified by watching children at play, listening to the conversations they…

Children are born to play and are born as intuitive scientists and use numeracy and literacy in their play. Playing is an essential apprenticeship for developing scientific (STEM) literacy. Observing children spontaneously playing reveals that they are experiencing STEM in action. They are observing phenomena, asking questions, solving problems,…

Although multiple efforts have been initiated to increase students' science proficiency scores, most of the schools in the United States do not reach the expected student academic performance. This study addresses the impact of a one-week summer scientific learning experience on students that worked with experimental procedures and students that…

Social connections are crucial for today's middle and high school students. We address this social need through a 3-H Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Cycle. Through the Three Sisters Garden activity presented here, we teach secondary school students about biodiversity and sustainability as we integrate the arts into STEM (STEAM). Students…

The COVID-19 outbreak has had a significant impact on higher education worldwide. In-person courses had to be quickly transited to online, including lab courses embedded with Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs). In response to this challenge, we successfully converted a fully in-person biochemistry lab that integrated with a…

The current study describes preliminary findings from the Xavier University of Louisiana Mobile Outreach for Laboratory Enrichment (XULA-MOLE) project, which is a collaboration between Xavier University of Louisiana (XULA), a Historically Black and Catholic University, and participating 9th-12th grade classrooms in the central New Orleans area…

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted chemistry teaching practices globally as many courses were forced online, necessitating adaptation to the digital platform. The biggest impact was to the practical component of the chemistry curriculum--the so-called wet lab. Naively, it would be thought that computer-based teaching laboratories would have little…