Student engagement is an important consideration when incorporating active learning activities into a classroom. To facilitate the large-scale assessment of students' engagement in activities, a survey measure must first be developed and evaluated. Therefore, the goal of this study was to create a self-report measure of student engagement for use…

A culinary exploration of the role of CO[subscript 2] in leavening is described. This demonstration substitutes dry ice for chemical leaveners in order to achieve the same pancake fluffiness. Under the universal framework of food and cooking, we developed this activity to bring aspects of phase transitions and chemical transformations to a broad…

The sudden COVID-19 outbreak has obstructed the conventional method of teaching causing a mandated shift to virtual platforms. A developing country like India which predominantly depended on conventional methods of teaching and learning in the pre-COVID era is gradually gaining success in effectively transitioning into virtual classrooms with the…

A remote laboratory that measures the enthalpy of vaporization ([delta]"H"[subscript vap]°) and the entropy of vaporization ([delta]"S"[subscript vap]°) of "n"-octane was designed, constructed, and offered to second-year physical chemistry undergraduates at the University of New England (UNE) and Curtin University.…

Photo-oxidation is one of the main causes of oxidative deterioration in food. Understanding of the mechanisms of photo-oxidation is essential for food science students when pursuing careers in food safety and quality assurance. However, few food chemistry laboratories emphasize photo-oxidation. Thus, we develop a laboratory activity that trains…

The shift to online education has dealt several important pedagogical lessons in a very short time frame, none more so than approaches to assessments. This experience, coupled to improved access to education, will likely see online assessments remain as a major component of modern mainstream education. The powerful technologies that facilitate the…

A fast, operationally simple, and reproducible synthetic protocol for anthraquinone dyes (AQDs), suitable for upper-division undergraduate industrial and organic chemistry laboratory courses, has been developed. This experiment is composed of three stages; the first step deals with the synthesis of AQDs, followed by a purification step, and…

Many electroanalytical techniques utilize three-electrode systems consisting of reference, counter, and working electrodes. These electrodes are often expensive when purchased commercially, making low-cost alternatives a vital area of research. Cheaper alternatives have been proposed; however, they often require time-consuming assembly techniques…

A semester-long group project implementing service-learning was designed and executed in the first semester of a two-semester-long biochemistry lecture sequence. The project required students to partner with the local public library to design and implement an interactive demonstration, either in person or in virtual format, for young children who…

For years, hybridization in chemistry has been taught using static pictures and model kits. We decided to reimagine how students learn hybridization through the development of a mobile learning tool. The tool contains gamification features, such as achievements and progressive leveling that keep students engaged, while the mobile platform allows…

Practice examinations developed at the ACS Examinations Institute ask students to self-report mental effort when answering items. This self-reported mental effort together with performance can be represented in the form of a cognitive efficiency graph for each student giving information on the utilization of cognitive resources and content…

Although active learning strategies are being incorporated into many higher-education STEM courses, not all students benefit from these activities to the same extent. As these types of activities are designed to engage students in their learning, differences in student engagement may explain some of the differences in learning outcomes. However,…

An interdisciplinary climate change project aligned with Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) was developed and implemented in an undergraduate chemistry course for K-8 preservice science teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Three demonstration activities aligned with NGSS and the Framework for K-12 Science Education are included in this…

This paper presents MATLAB user interfaces for two multiphase kinetic models: the kinetic double-layer model of aerosol surface chemistry and gas--particle interactions (K2-SURF) and the kinetic multilayer model of aerosol surface and bulk chemistry (KM-SUB). Each interface has simple and user-friendly features that allow undergraduate and…

Public engagement in medicine has become more important in promoting population health management and literacy. Medicine is a topic of great societal importance, and many public engagement activities have been developed to promote this area. However, they often narrowly focus on patient groups, diseases, a singular pharmaceutical drug or…