The COVID-19 outbreak has altered chemistry laboratory instruction and forced us to reconsider the balance between face-to-face and online teaching. Our students preferred face-to-face teaching (score 4.1/5 on a Likert-like scale) to virtual laboratory exercises (3.4/5) despite the fact that their performance score was actually lower in…

In this communication we compared the challenges, teaching strategies, laboratory methods, and discussion methods used by two different instructors teaching a three-semester chemistry course. The University of Connecticut offers a three-semester general chemistry course geared toward students who lack the confidence or foundational experience for…

The purpose of this study was to examine how pre-service science teachers develop their understandings of nature of scientific inquiry during the science laboratory course with preparing 5E based lesson plans, and how they transfer those understandings into their teaching practices. All data were collected and analysed qualitatively by using the…

In general chemistry laboratories, students learn practical laboratory skills through hands-on activities and are exposed to new scientific instruments. However, these instruments are often viewed as black boxes for various reasons, where students do not know how to use them or what the instruments are capable of. This tendency is likely to induce…

The glowing discharges of plasma obtained by introducing direct current high voltages between two electrodes in a chamber that contains a low pressure gas produces a spectacular effect that makes it attractive to be used as a laboratory experiment for students. Setting up this experiment is however costly and has crucial safety issues to be…

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) serve to increase student access to authentic scientific opportunities. Current evidence within the literature indicates that engagement in CUREs promotes students' science identity development, science self-efficacy, motivation, and ability to "think like a scientist." Despite the…

Most of the available information on studying under the challenging conditions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic emphasizes a variety of aspects on how to digitalize the whole teaching process. Thus, several useful and potentially game-changing strategies have been reported recently. In contrast to the digitalization of teaching, in this…

The aim of this study is to reveal the effect of using virtual lab application in science teaching on students' academic achievement and students' views on virtual lab application. The study group of the research consists of 62 students studying in the 8th grade of a secondary school in Antalya in the 2019-2020 academic years. Mixed method design…

The first case of coronavirus disease 2019 in Colombia was detected on March 6, 2020. Subsequently, schools, colleges, and universities were closed on March 26, which forced a massive migration to virtual education and impacted laboratory-based teaching courses. The teaching of biochemistry requires an experimental component that virtual…

A novel technology that employs computer vision (CV) to carry out an automatic titration experiment is presented. The experiment is designed to facilitate understanding of the basics of the CV technology and its application in chemistry among undergraduate students. The standard chemical procedure of titration has been chosen, since it is…

The growing adoption of active learning techniques in physics courses requires that students productively engage in collaboration with their peers. Although studies in physics education research (PER) have addressed aspects of group work, the problem persists of how to engage students in collaborative work with appropriate self-awareness, adequate…

In this teaching laboratory, the students are directed in an exercise that involves designing and performing an experiment to determine estrogen's role in regulating delayed implantation (diapause) in female rats. To encourage active participation by the students, a discussion question is provided before the laboratory exercise in which each…

Magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles were synthesized and stabilized using ammonium cations or poly(vinyl alcohol) to produce amazing materials such as safer aqueous ferrofluids, ferrogels, ferromagnetic inks, plastics, and nanopowders illustrating how versatile materials can be produced just by simple modifications. The synthesis is fast, reliable,…

Engineering design is an ideal perspective for engaging students in college science classes. An engineering design problem-solving framework was used to create a general chemistry lab activity focused on an important environmental issue--dead zones. Dead zones impact over 400 locations around the world and are a result of nutrient pollution, one…

In this work, the first experiment ever done to determine the age of the Earth is revisited. The benefits of its application at primary and secondary school levels are presented and discussed. In particular, emphasis is placed on the advantage of facing students with the challenges that scientists have had to overcome during the past three…