A study with K-9 Greek students was conducted in order to evaluate how the declarative knowledge acquisition was affected by incorporating Arduino experiments in secondary Chemistry Education. A Digital Application (DA) that blends the use of the Arduino sensors' experiments with digital educational material, including Virtual Labs (VLs), was…

We describe an educational activity that can be done by using smartphones to collect data in physics experiments aimed to measure the oscillating period of a spring-mass system and the elastic constant of the helicoidal spring by the dynamic method. Results for the oscillating period and for the elastic constant of the spring agree very well with…

Research mentors can play an active role in helping their students develop oral communication skills by implementing formative assessment activities in their group meetings. A rubric can be used as a formative assessment tool that helps a student understand the achievement target they are working toward, where they are relative to the achievement…

Grades influence students' confidence and decisions to complete STEM degrees and pursue relevant careers. What affects students' confidence and performance in college upper-division biology laboratory courses and how relevant are evaluation methods to career success? STEM laboratory courses are an excellent model to address these issues because of…

Introductory physics lab courses serve as the starting point for students to learn and experience experimental physics at the undergraduate level. They often focus on measurement uncertainty, an essential topic for practicing physicists and a foundation for more advanced lab learning. As such, measurement uncertainty has been a focus when studying…

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increasing amount of research on redesigning educational models. This paper describes the contents of a new laboratory course on physical chemistry based on blended learning, designed for third-year students in the Department of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Chuo University. We provided…

An introductory plant science lab offered by the Department of Agronomy & Horticulture at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln was adapted for online delivery. This paper describes the adjustments made for online delivery and examines students' perceptions of learning and engagement from surveys administered in both the in-person and online…

The real time PCR (qPCR) method provides a powerful method to assess levels of particular species of DNA. When combined with reverse transcription (RT-qPCR) it is the predominate technique to measure expression of gene transcripts. While this approach is very powerful, particular care must be taken in the design of the primers to facilitate…

Supersonic free-fall jumps are excellent examples of kinematics in the context of drag. They have attracted a lot of media, public, and scientific interest. In 2012, Felix Baumgartner jumped from a height of approximately 38.969 km. During his flight he reached a top speed of 373 m/s, becoming the first human to travel faster than the speed of…

This work explores the interface between 3D-printing, material sciences, and microfluidics with electrochemical detection in an undergraduate laboratory. This work includes a module for the characterization and electrochemical analysis of microelectrodes that spans 4 weeks (3 h per week). Laboratory exercises include the fabrication of a…

Significant changes in the teaching-learning process have occurred since the appearance of the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV 2 coronavirus, due to the limited mobility and closure of university education centers. In this context, essential challenges were presented for teachers and students to finish the academic courses by addressing…

Science-related competencies are demanded in many fields, but attracting more students to scientific educations remains a challenge. This paper uses two studies to investigate the value of using Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) laboratory simulations in science education. In Study 1, 99 (52 male, 47 female) seventh (49) and eighth (50) grade…

Anticipated learning outcomes (LOs) were defined and used for the backward design of a Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE). These LOs reflect the inquiry-based nature of CUREs and capture key knowledge and skills inherent to scientific practice and essential in research. The LOs were used to plan a formative and summative…

The Hofmeister series is a recurring trend that ranks ions' abilities to influence various aqueous processes in solution. Herein, a set of project-based experiments was developed for students in an upper-level physical chemistry laboratory to investigate the specific ion effects on the thermodynamics of caffeine partitioning between aqueous and…

This article reports on the introduction of a simple, portable, low-cost, and hands-on spectral tool for first-year chemistry students to use inside the laboratory and its spontaneous dissemination outside of the laboratory. The Mini Spec is a refinement of the Schwabacher minispectroscope in terms of simplicity and language load on the students.…