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We present a new highly interdisciplinary project-based course in computer aided drug discovery (CADD). This course was developed in response to a call for alternative pedagogical approaches during the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused the cancellation of a face-to-face summer research program sponsored by the Louisiana Biomedical Research Network (LBRN). The course integrates guided research and educational experiences for chemistry, biology, and computer science students. We implement research-based methods with publicly available tools in bioinformatics and molecular modeling to identify and prioritize promising antiviral drug candidates for COVID-19. The purpose of this course is three-fold: I. Implement an active learning and inclusive pedagogy that fosters student engagement and research mindset; II. Develop student interdisciplinary research skills that are highly beneficial in a broader scientific context; III. Demonstrate that pedagogical shifts (initially incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic) can furnish longer-term instructional benefits. The course, which has now been successfully taught a total of five times, incorporates four modules, including lectures/discussions, live demos, inquiry-based assignments, and science communication.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between written and oral reasoning in an undergraduate chemistry laboratory course as part of an argument-based inquiry approach, which is also a generative learning environment, known as the Science Writing Heuristic (SWH). The study employed the data-transformation variant of convergent design of mixed-method research. Data sources included 180 laboratory reports from nine Pre-service Science Teachers (PSTs) and 20 video recordings across two semesters. Using Walton's argument schemes, PSTs' development, utilisation and correlation of written and oral reasoning and an argument cycle of premise-justification-conclusion were examined. A Friedman test and a Spearman-Brown correlation were conducted for statistical analysis. The results revealed that there is a positive correlation between written and oral reasoning. While the quality of PSTs' written reasoning significantly increased from the first time phase to the following time phases, this pattern was not observed in oral reasoning. An argument cycle of premise-justification-conclusion occurred in each phase of oral arguments. However, this cycle did not occur in every facet of the SWH process across all time phases in written arguments. The study suggests that pre-service science teachers should be provided with learning environments that will allow them to make external evaluations and engage in talking, reading and writing activities for learning purposes.

Education researchers are deeply interested in understanding the way students organize their knowledge. Card sort tasks, which require students to group concepts, are one mechanism to infer a student's organizational strategy. However, the limited resolution of card sort tasks means they necessarily miss some of the nuance in a student's strategy. In this work, we propose new machine learning strategies that leverage a potentially richer source of student thinking: free-form written language justifications associated with student sorts. Using data from a university chemistry card sort task, we use vectorized representations of language and unsupervised learning techniques to generate qualitatively interpretable clusters, which can provide unique insight in how students organize their knowledge. We compared these to machine learning analysis of the students' sorts themselves. Machine learning-generated clusters revealed different organizational strategies than those built into the task; for example, sorts by difficulty or even discipline. There were also many more categories generated by machine learning for what we would identify as more novice-like sorts and justifications than originally built into the task, suggesting students' organizational strategies converge when they become more expert-like. Finally, we learned that categories generated by machine learning for students' justifications did not always match the categories for their sorts, and these cases highlight the need for future research on students' organizational strategies, both manually and aided by machine learning. In sum, the use of machine learning to analyze results from a card sort task has helped us gain a more nuanced understanding of students' expertise, and demonstrates a promising tool to add to existing analytic methods for card sorts.

We describe two established STEM camps that went virtual following the outbreak of COVID-19 during the summer of 2020. Our Summer Research Opportunity (SRO) camp engages middle school science fair winners in a forensic research opportunity, while The Immokalee Foundation (TIF) camp introduces middle school students from historically underrepresented groups to STEM topics. Home kits were carefully prepared and delivered to all participants to enhance their engagement with our faculty facilitators. Modifications to accommodate the virtual experience are discussed. Our program assessment used a retrospective pretest-posttest design delivering a modified STEM Semantics survey to measure interest in STEM topics and STEM careers. While the programming and the population was different for each camp, both programs achieved positive outcomes in the virtual environment enhancing participant interest in, excitement for, and importance of STEM topics and STEM careers. The local TV news even broadcasted a short video of one of the camps.

This study investigated the development and utilization of argument and representation resources in pre-service science teachers' (PSTs') written and oral arguments over two semesters in an argument-based inquiry environment of General Chemistry Laboratory I and II courses. The study employed a form of mixed methods research that is known as 'data-transformation variant of convergent design' which allows quantification of qualitative data. Data sources included PSTs' 180 laboratory reports and 20 video recordings. A Friedman test and a Spearman-Brown correlation were conducted for statistical analysis. The results revealed that the quality of argument and representation were intertwined in both written and oral argumentation. While the PSTs' quality of written argument and representation significantly increased from the first-time phase to the following time phases, in oral argumentation the quality remained stable after the second time phase. There was also a positive correlation amongst the PSTs' quality of written and oral argument and representation. The PSTs' representational competency increased over time and they connected more representations in written arguments. The results suggest that students should be provided with opportunities to engage in sustained talking, writing, and reading practices both publicly and privately in order to critique and construct arguments, develop representational competency, and integrate ideas.

The National College Entrance Examination (NCEE) is a high-stakes test in China that determines which higher education institution an individual can attend. Since 2014, China has launched a comprehensive reform pilot of the NCEE in Zhejiang and Shanghai, allowing students more flexibility in their subjects' choice. This study examines the influence of family background on students' choice of subjects in this new NCEE. Using survey data from academic high school students in Zhejiang province, we find that students from urban as compared to rural families are more likely to want to be tested on science subjects and less likely to want to be tested on politics. Students from high-income as compared to low-income families are more likely to choose politics and history and less likely to choose physics and chemistry test subjects.

In this paper, we explore how co-design creates opportunities to learn practical design knowledge related to clarifying and balancing goals for a particular class of design contexts: developing materials that meet ambitious, externally defined disciplinary learning goals that also connect to the interests and priorities of students from minoritized groups and communities. University-based researchers, classroom teachers, and district-level science leaders co-designed high school chemistry units over a two-year period. A collaborative analysis of the tools and processes used in workshops showed that engaging in co-design and reflection supported the team in clarifying and balancing goals, and it led all participants to call for refinements to the co-design process. Interactions during co-design and reflections on them highlight tensions that arose during co-design as well as the tools and strategies for working through them. These findings point to both the possibilities and limits of co-design for clarifying and balancing multiple goals and the need to consider key constraints on co-design within the current infrastructures of schools and educational research. They also illustrate how studying co-design teams as a collective can help identify design principles and processes that can support the learning of other teams seeking to balance a focus on standards with a focus on student interests and community priorities.

Fiber materials and textiles are topics of much research and study today, with efforts being made to produce fibers that are stronger, more durable, more breathable, and better for the environment. However, the production of fibers at the laboratory scale is uncommon and difficult past the prototype phase, and to a commercial fiber production level. Most current fiber spinning systems are too large to be operated anywhere outside of a designated facility and are prohibitively expensive. Here we present the build for a simple and affordable fiber collection device adept for demonstrations, student laboratories, and early research prototyping. This paper describes a nearly laboratory ready, functional fiber collection device that was designed, built, and evaluated during the COVID pandemic. It is constructed of an Arduino microcontroller, a toy motor, and basic circuit components with an assembled cost of ~$60. The developed spinner's rotational speed ranged from ~120-960 rpm. Spinner functionality was tested via fiber winding, solution spinning, and melt spinning. It is estimated that the spinner could hold ~3.5 g worth of fiber before unloading and restarting with a fresh spool. Melt spun fibers produced by the unit were measured to have an average diameter of 31 ± 6 [mu]m. Ultimately, this system was designed to be a low-cost entry point to fiber spinning for research and more primarily for education purposes. The parts list and system design are included and could be expanded upon as part of a learning laboratory exercise around the design/build/test paradigm. The current system works effectively as a demonstration to produce low- to moderate-quality fibers. The design would need to be augmented with a higher-torque motor, and certain components would need to be replaced if higher-quality fibers are desired.

A single latent fingerprint consists of ~50 µg of matter for which the anionic content often provides a differentiating characteristic between individuals. This forensic-themed, analytical chemistry experiment exploits this difference and has students employ ion-exchange chromatography to quantitatively analyze the anionic content of both authentic and "synthetic" fingerprints in order to identify, condemn, or exonerate "suspects".

Language and argument are epistemic tools that learners can use to help them generate and validate knowledge for themselves, as emphasized in NGSS and previous NRC reports. Not all learning environments elicit or support the use of these epistemic tools equally, thus affecting how students grow in competence in relation to their use. The present study examined growth in students' competencies in language and argument during one semester, with a comparison of two learning environments--replicative versus generative--using students' lab reports. It also examined interdependence between these growth patterns. The participants (n = 30) were simultaneously enrolled in two required introductory-level science lab courses--Chemistry-I Lab (generative) and Physics-I Lab (replicative)--taken during the first fall semester at the university. The students' written reports for each weekly lab (n = 490) were collected at the end of the semester and scored to quantify students' quality of argument (as holistic argument) and language use (as multimodal representation). This growth was modeled using linear mixed-effects regression for each competence and each environment. Quadratic modeling was also used to show whether the trend of the growth demonstrated constant increase or a leveling off. Findings provide evidence that students showed higher growth in language and argument competencies in their lab reports for the generative learning environment than in their lab reports for the replicative learning environment. The findings also suggest that there is marked interdependence between the growth patterns of the argument and language competencies. Implications are discussed for learning environments to promote language and argument development. The interdependence of argument and language growth highlights that encouraging language use in a generative manner can be a promising direction for improving argumentation and, by extension, science learning in science classrooms.

This work presents a simple protocol that demonstrates the use of an inexpensive household carbon monoxide detector as a useful tool to detect the release of carbon monoxide gas from thermal cheletropic decarbonylation reactions. The carbon monoxide detection method described has been employed in a short series of reactions used in a university teaching laboratory setting, and full procedures for these are outlined. In each case, the procedure to isolate and identify the decarbonylation products has also been provided.

Two-stage quizzes and exams were implemented for both in-class quizzes and term tests in three sections of first-year General (Introductory) Chemistry. In the first stage, students completed the exam individually and submitted their papers. In the second stage, students collaborated with peers to complete a subset of the exam questions. The aim of the first stage was to evaluate students' individual knowledge, while the second stage provided an opportunity for peer-led learning. Exam scores were calculated as a blend of scores on the two stages, between 80 and 85% for the first (individual) stage and 20-15% for the second (collaborative) stage. Students' (total n = 129) written responses to open-ended questions in a long-answer student survey comparing two-stage and one-stage (in which there is only the individual portion) tests were qualitatively coded by thematic analysis, with themes developed through a grounded theory approach. The most significant conclusion was that students perceived that the two-stage test format helped to partially (but by no means fully) alleviate student exam anxiety when compared to a traditional one-stage test. Student responses were primarily positive about the two-stage format rather than negative about the one-stage format. The most common themes that emerged from student responses centered on: (1) improvement in grades, (2) positive discussion with peers, (3) immediate feedback from peers, and (4) less (perceived) pressure. Finally, students also expressed a very strong overall preference for two-stage over one-stage tests.

During the Spring 2020 semester, many institutions abruptly transitioned their courses from face-to-face instruction to remote learning in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. To address the unique challenges posed by the remote teaching and learning modality, our department used mobile technology to adapt empirically validated instructional strategies for use in our remote courses. At Merrimack College, all faculty and students have iPads and Apple Pencils, and the members of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry have incorporated this mobile technology into all of our course offerings. Our continued use of this technology eased the transition for both faculty and students by promoting course continuity and decreasing the cognitive load imposed by the transition. Survey responses suggest that students appreciated the structure provided by scaffolded course materials and synchronous class meetings, which helped keep them engaged in their chemistry courses. Coupling active learning instruction with the Zoom video conferencing platform allowed students to connect with the instructor and other students; this was highly valued by our students. Overall, we can conclude that universal access to technology, creating community using videoconferencing software, and intentional pedagogical choices to incorporate active learning created a positive learning environment for students.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted face-to-face instruction in educational institutions all over the world. As instructors we had to scramble to completely change courses to emergency remote delivery, sometimes with only a few days' notice. Herein, we present reflections on the successes and challenges we encountered following the sudden and unexpected transition to remote delivery. We also address ways that we managed the obstacles faced, from overcoming technological issues posed by remote delivery to adaptation of laboratory content for emergency remote delivery. In addition, we discuss successful strategies for assessment of student learning and student engagement in the online environment. Overall, we found that students' motivation was high, as indicated by online class attendance and engagement with course activities. We believe that the existing strong student-instructor relationships at our small liberal arts and sciences campus contributed to the unexpectedly high level of student engagement.

A set of inexpensive and pedagogically rich experiments focusing on S[subscript N]1, E1, and E2 reactions have been updated to include modern computational and spectroscopic analyses. The S[subscript N]1 experiment involves treatment of "tert"-amyl alcohol with hydrochloric acid to generate the corresponding alkyl chloride, which is used as the starting material for the subsequent E2 reaction. The E1 experiment involves reaction of "tert"-amyl alcohol with sulfuric acid. Both elimination reactions generate a pair of isomeric methylbutenes, with the ratio being dependent on the reaction mechanism. The combination of computational chemistry and a recently developed fast heteronuclear single-quantum correlation spectroscopy method (ASAP-HSQC), in tandem with [superscript 1]H and [superscript 13]C NMR and GC-MS analysis, allows the E1 and E2 product mixtures to be fully analyzed by students.

Increasing demand for chemicals worldwide, depleting resources, consumer pressure, stricter legislation, and the rising cost of waste disposal are placing increasing pressure on chemical and related industries. For any organization to survive in the current arena of growing climate change laws and regulations, and increasing public influence, the issue of sustainability must be fundamental to the way it operates. A sustainable manufacturing approach will enable economic growth to be combined with environmental and social sustainability and will be realized via collaboration between a multidisciplinary community including chemists, biologists, engineers, environmental scientists, economists, experts in management, and policy makers. Hence, employees with new skills, knowledge, and experience are essential. To realize this approach, the design and development of a series of workshops encompassing systems thinking are presented here. After close consultation with industry, an annual program of interactive workshops has been designed for graduate students to go beyond examining the "greening" of chemical reactions, processes, and products, and instead embed a systems thinking approach to learning. The workshops provide a valuable insight into the issues surrounding sustainable manufacturing covering change management, commercialization, environmental impact, circular economy, legislation, and bioresources incorporating the conversion of waste into valuable products. The multidisciplinary course content incorporates industrial case studies, providing access to real business issues, and is delivered by experts from academic departments across campus and industry.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has outlined four themes that define science literacy; these are systems, models, constancy and change, and scale. More recently, the National Research Council has released the framework for K-12 science education that includes "Scale, Proportion, and Quantity". Scale literacy, the collection of concepts and skills that contribute to the ability of a student to move between different scale worlds, has long been of interest in education research. In chemistry, students are confronted with issues of scale in almost every aspect of their learning as they navigate the macroscopic world we live in and the submicroscopic world chemistry happens on. Unsurprisingly, previous research has shown that students have a limited understanding of scale and demonstrate a narrow range of size in which they are comfortable operating in. Before meaningful instruction can be developed to help students increase their ability in scale, research must first focus on understanding the current conceptions of scale held by students. The research presented here replicates previous work that investigated undergraduate chemistry students' absolute and relative scaling abilities in an interview setting, on a larger classwide scale.

Chromatography is a ubiquitous technique in analytical chemistry, and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is the industry standard for quantitation of components in solution mixtures. However, demonstrating the principles of liquid chromatography to undergraduates via HPLC-based experiments often proves ineffective because of the fully automated nature of modern HPLC units. This paper details a novel laboratory exercise that is accessible to students in first-year chemistry and high school and helps to demonstrate and demystify the principles involved in HPLC. Using only common and inexpensive laboratory equipment found in most general-chemistry laboratories (burets and benchtop spectrophotometers), students are able to replicate results that are equivalent to those obtained on research-grade HPLC instruments, while gaining valuable insight into chromatography principles.

This article describes a five-lesson curriculum that introduces students to the primary cause, multiple predicted impacts, and possible solutions to ocean acidification. It builds upon the strengths of over 90 existing teaching resources on the topic while also contributing new ways to teach about the impacts and solutions to this pressing environmental problem. By focusing on ways to help, we hope to leave students with hope for the future and a sense that ocean acidification can be addressed.

Mechanistic reasoning, or reasoning systematically through underlying factors and relationships that give rise to phenomena, is a powerful thinking strategy that allows one to explain and make predictions about phenomena. This article synthesizes and builds on existing frameworks to identify essential characteristics of students' mechanistic reasoning across scientific content areas. We argue that these characteristics can be represented as "epistemic heuristics," or ideas about how to direct one's intellectual work, that implicitly guide mechanistic reasoning. We use this framework to characterize middle school students' written explanatory accounts of two phenomena in different science content areas using these heuristics. We demonstrate evidence of heuristics in students' accounts and show that the use of the heuristics was related to but distinct from science content knowledge. We describe how the heuristics allowed us to characterize and compare the mechanistic sophistication of account construction across science content areas. This framework captures elements of a crosscutting practical epistemology that may support students in directing the construction of mechanistic accounts across content areas over time, and it allows us to characterize that progress.

This paper describes an Australian Learning and Teaching Council funded project for which Learning Design is encompassed in the broadest sense. ALIUS (Active Learning In University Science) takes the design of learning back to the learning experiences created for students. ALIUS is not about designing a particular activity, or subject, or course, but rather the development of a method, or process, by which we have re-designed the way in which learning occurs in large university classrooms world wide. (Contains 2 tables and 1 figure.)

A novel laboratory curriculum is presented, developed around some common tasks of a laboratory researcher in chemistry: purification, synthesis, and measurement. The capstone of the sequence is an integrated laboratory, leading to a more independent research experience. Students who have completed this laboratory curriculum appear to perform comparably to previous students who completed a more traditional curriculum, based on their handling of American Chemical Society Exam questions and career placement. Introduction of the new curriculum has coincided with increased numbers of majors as well as increased participation in research, but attributing causation is complicated by the coincidental introduction of a new scholarship program.

Despite the growing popularity of cyclic voltammetry, many students do not receive formalized training in this technique as part of their coursework. Confronted with self-instruction, students can be left wondering where to start. Here, a short introduction to cyclic voltammetry is provided to help the reader with data acquisition and interpretation. Tips and common pitfalls are provided, and the reader is encouraged to apply what is learned in short, simple training modules provided in the Supporting Information. Armed with the basics, the motivated aspiring electrochemist will find existing resources more accessible and will progress much faster in the understanding of cyclic voltammetry.

As one approach to moving beyond transmitting "inert" ideas to chemistry students, we use the term "teaching from rich contexts" to describe implementations of case studies or context-based learning based on systems thinking that provide deep and rich opportunities for learning crosscutting concepts through contexts. This approach nurtures the use of higher-order cognitive skills to connect concepts and apply the knowledge gained to new contexts. We describe the approach used to design a set of resources that model how rich contexts can be used to facilitate learning of general chemistry topics. The Visualizing the Chemistry of Climate Change (VC3) initiative provides an exemplar for introducing students in general chemistry courses to a set of core chemistry concepts, while infusing rich contexts drawn from sustainability science literacy. Climate change, one of the defining sustainability challenges of our century, with deep and broad connections to chemistry curriculum and crosscutting concepts, was selected as a rich context to introduce four topics (isotopes, acids-bases, gases, and thermochemistry) into undergraduate general chemistry courses. The creation and assessment of VC3 resources for general chemistry was implemented in seven steps: (i) mapping the correlation between climate literacy principles and core first-year university chemistry content, (ii) documenting underlying science conceptions, (iii) developing an inventory of chemistry concepts related to climate change and validating instruments that make use of the inventory to assess understanding, (iv) articulating learning outcomes for each topic, (v) developing and testing peer-reviewed interactive digital learning objects related to climate literacy principles with particular relevance to undergraduate chemistry, (vi) piloting the materials with first-year students and measuring the change in student understanding of both chemistry and climate science concepts, and (vii) disseminating the interactive resources for use by chemistry educators and students. A novel feature of the approach was to design resources (step v) based on tripartite sets of learning outcomes (step iv) for each chemistry and climate concept, with each knowledge outcome accompanied by an outcome describing the evidential basis for that knowledge, and a third outcome highlighting the relevance of that knowledge for students.

A graduate-level course focused on original research proposals is introduced to address the uneven preparation in technical writing of new chemistry graduate students. This course focuses on writing original research proposals. The general course structure features extensive group discussions, small-group activities, and regular in-class small-group peer review. Since the introduction of this course, it has been found by student surveys, faculty feedback, and student success in winning graduate fellowships that the course is a valuable graduate education component. Detailed here are the course structure, pedagogical approach, and course evaluation.

Climate change is one of the most critical problems facing citizens today. Chemistry faculty are presented with the problem of making general chemistry content simultaneously relevant and interesting. Using climate science to teach chemistry allows faculty to help students learn chemistry content in a rich context. Concepts related to electromagnetic radiation and gases can be taught using an understanding of climate change and how greenhouse gases work. However, it would be important to know the level of prior knowledge that the students bring to the course and their confidence in that knowledge. Thus, a two-tiered instrument was developed to measure student understanding of climate change, the behavior of gases, and the mechanism of radiative forcing by greenhouse gases. The instrument was implemented iteratively at two institutions to allow for revision and replication. The final form of the instrument may be used in general chemistry classes or interdisciplinary courses to shape and guide instruction.

This experiment was designed and successfully introduced to complement the nanochemistry taught to undergraduate students in a useful and interesting way. Colloidal Ag nanoparticles were synthesized by a simple, room-temperature method, and the resulting suspension was then used to study the surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) of methylene blue. The colloid was also characterized by UV-visible spectroscopy, and these results were used to help explain some of the observed SERS features. The students looked at the effects of concentration and acquisition time on the measured SERS spectra, and the final part of the experiment was based around using their newly acquired knowledge to investigate the lowest concentration of methylene blue that could be detected. Concentrations of 5 × 10[superscript -10] M were routinely achieved. The combination of UV-visible spectroscopy, SERS, and nanochemistry made for an interesting and thought-provoking laboratory experience.

This article describes the integration of a cocurricular "Community" into a first-year undergraduate chemistry course at the University of Toronto. The Community has been in existence since 2006, with over 700 students being involved. Its broad objectives have been three-fold: to inform course members about departmental resources and their significance, to teach skills and provide tips away from formal class content, and to promote the importance of undergraduate research/highlight available opportunities. The Community has received very positive feedback over a number of years and has resulted in a large increase in the number of students enrolling in second- and fourth-year undergraduate science research courses.

In this article, Brian Coppola begins with the single key concept of Boyer, in "Scholarship Reconsidered." The statement appears as follows: "We believe the time has come to move beyond the tired old "teaching versus research" debate and give the familiar and honorable term "scholarship" a broader, more capacious meaning, one that brings legitimacy to the full scope of academic work." Coppola expands that idea by saying that despite the unresolved, and often tiresome, decades-long debate about what the scholarship of teaching and learning might mean, the revelation in Boyer's statement is that scholarship is something we already know and understand but there is still a need to adjust that vision enough to see its broader meaning. Boyer's charge: not to split and segregate academic work, "scholarship," but to reconcile false dichotomies and improve and advance the entire profession. Coppola argues that while the emergent growth of standard Preparing Future Faculty (PFF) programs is heartening, they still fall short of Boyer's charge because the level of engaged and informed independent work in them is nowhere near the level of one's disciplinary training for research and discovery. This article discusses elements that have been created for broadening the professional development infrastructure for students who are interested in academic careers.

In this laboratory experiment, students determine the number-average molar masses and second virial coefficients of polyethylene glycol (PEG) polymers ranging in molar mass from 200 to 1500 g mol[superscript -1] using vapor pressure osmometry (VPO). Students assess VPO in relation to accurate molar mass calculations of PEG polymers. Additionally, students use the second virial coefficients to identify any PEG self-interactions and any dependence of the second virial coefficient on PEG molar mass. This laboratory experiment is suitable for a biophysical or physical chemistry laboratory.

Transition metal organometallic reactions have become increasingly important in the synthesis of organic molecules. A new approach has been developed to introduce organometallic chemistry, along with organic and inorganic chemistry, at the foundational level. This change highlights applications of organometallic chemistry that have dramatically evolved in recent decades. With this development, a larger number of students have been reached than would typically be exposed to organometallic reactions. Modules are described that introduce transition metal organometallic compounds and reactions by analogy with thematically similar topics in general chemistry and organic chemistry. These topics are periodically reinforced by incorporation into organic synthesis problems.

?-Cyclodextrin can assemble in the presence of KOH or RbOH into metal-organic frameworks (CD-MOFs) with applications in gas adsorption and environmental remediation. Crystalline CD-MOFs are grown by vapor diffusion and their reversible adsorption of CO[subscript 2](g) is analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The experiment can be tailored to high school through advanced undergraduate laboratories and engages students in several areas of fundamental chemistry (crystallization, chemical equilibria, acid-base reactions, gas laws), advanced materials (MOFs), and broader impacts of chemistry (renewable resources and environmental chemistry).

A one-semester, introductory chemistry course is described that develops a primarily qualitative understanding of structure-property relationships. Starting from an atoms-first approach, the course examines the properties and three-dimensional structure of metallic and ionic solids before expanding into a thorough investigation of molecules. In addition to bonding, geometry, molecular orbitals, and intermolecular attractions, other structural topics are included, such as stereochemistry, conformation, and factors that influence the strength of Brønsted acids. Where appropriate, related considerations in biochemistry are highlighted. The course provides a common basis to majors and nonmajors for further study in chemistry and also serves as a platform to illustrate a variety of topics of current research interest.

This paper focuses on one Grade 5 class (9 females; 9 males) who worked in student-pairs to view five digital learning object (DLO) lessons created by the authors and meant to introduce students to the nature of models, the particle nature of matter, and physical change. Specifically, the paper focuses on whether DLO design elements could assist student-pairs to identify salient features needed to distinguish among particle models of solids, liquids, and gases and explain particle behavior during physical change. The primary data source is the student-pairs' responses to on-line questions embedded in the DLOs at the end of Lesson 3 and at the beginning, middle, and end of Lesson 4. Data shows that nearly every student-pair acknowledged the importance of noticing movement, spacing, and holding when trying to distinguish among particle models of solids, liquids, and gases. Further, they identified changes to movement, spacing, and holding as the salient features of physical change. The paper concludes with recommendations for future research.

The learning environment described here uses Web-based videoconferencing technology to merge the traditional classroom journal article discussion with student-led interviews of journal article authors. Papers that describe recent applications of a given technique are selected, with the author engagement occurring at the end of a three or four week module covering the technique and its applications. Students prepare for the author engagements by reading the paper, discussing it as a class with the instructor, and developing a set of consensus questions to provide a framework for their conversation. Authors do not make formal presentations to the students, but instead answer questions. The smaller class sizes of upper-division undergraduate courses provide an intimate setting for these student-led conversations. Author engagements are designed to improve critical thinking skills in the content areas studied, improve interactive scientific communication skills, build scientific self-confidence in young scientists, and expose students to established scientist role models. The student-author interactions described here provide a cost-effective mechanism to expose students to diverse areas of chemistry and to bring expert scientists into the classroom. In situations where videoconferencing is not available or permitted, teleconferences provide a reasonable substitution.

Ion exchange chromatography is an important technique in the separation of charged species, particularly in biological, inorganic, and environmental samples. In this experiment, students are supplied with a mixture of two substitution-inert complex ions. They separate the complexes by ion exchange chromatography using a "flash" technique. After taking a visible spectrum of the eluted complexes, the unknowns are identified by comparison with a table of supplied ?[subscript max] values and quantified using Beer's law. This experiment can be completed in under 4 h and is suitable for introductory and intermediate chemistry students.

Successfully creating and implementing interdisciplinary curricula in introductory science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses is challenging, but doing so is increasingly more important as current problems in science become more interdisciplinary. Opening up the silos between science disciplines and overcoming common institutional barriers (cost, limited time, need to deliver specific course content, and lack of faculty commitment) is possible by bringing students together from different science courses to discuss interesting interdisciplinary problems. This article describes the mobilization and implementation of a community-oriented Interdisciplinary Science Seminar (ISS) that adds interdisciplinary content to traditional introductory science courses without a significant investment of additional resources. In addition, increased faculty collaboration on interdisciplinary curriculum was achieved, and a second new student-oriented interdisciplinary science program was created.

The design and construction of an apparatus to measure the optical birefringence of a liquid crystal is described. The instrument also includes temperature control and monitoring circuitry to allow for the measurement of the nematic-to-isotropic phase transition temperature. An important feature of this design is that the students are able to build the optical bench section of the instrument from a kit of parts supplied. The electronics instrumentation for the illuminator, photometer, and temperature controller functions are all low-cost designs using common components, yet provide more than adequate accuracy for the measurements required. The entire instrument cost is $430, an estimated cost reduction of approximately $3000 compared to the design previously proposed by Waclawik et al. This instrumentation is suitable for second or third-year undergraduate students in materials science or physical chemistry courses.

This paper reports on a teacher's and his students' responsiveness to a new tetrahedral-oriented (Mahaffy in "J Chem Educ" 83(1):49-55, 2006) curriculum requiring more discursive classroom practices in the teaching of chemistry. In this instrumental case study, we identify the intentions of this learner-centered curriculum and a teacher's development in response to this curriculum. We also explore the tensions this teacher experiences as students subsequently respond to his adjusted teaching. We use a Chemistry Teacher Inventory (Lewthwaite and Wiebe in "Res Sci Educ" 40(11):667-689, 2011; Lewthwaite and Wiebe in "Can J Math Sci Technol Educ" 12(1):36-61, 2012; Lewthwaite in "Chem Educ Res Pract." doi:10.1039/C3RP00122A, 2014) to assist the teacher in monitoring how he teaches and how he would like to improve his teaching. We also use a student form of the instrument, the Chemistry Classroom Inventory and Classroom Observation Protocol (Lewthwaite and Wiebe 2011) to verify the teacher's teaching and perception of student preferences for his teaching especially in terms of the discursive processes the curriculum encourages. By so doing, the teacher is able to use both sets of data as a foundation for critical reflection and work towards resolution of the incongruence in data arising from students' preferred learning orientations and his teaching aspirations. Implications of this study in regards to the authority of students' voice in triggering teachers' pedagogical change and the adjustments in "teachering" and "studenting" required by such curricula are considered.

This paper examines teachers' experiences in responding to a new Chemistry curriculum in the province of Manitoba in Canada informed by a "tetrahedral" orientation (Mahaffy, 2005) as a pedagogical framework for the teaching of Chemistry. This tetrahedral orientation endorses macroscopic, microscopic, symbolic and human element teaching and learning experiences and, considering that most Chemistry teaching typically focuses on the symbolic level (Johnstone, 1991), affords a much more diversified Chemistry teacher pedagogy and student-centred learning experience. The teachers self-selected for this study were a part of a larger group of 74 participants in a five-year professional development initiative focusing on fostering the enactment of the intended Chemistry curriculum with its tetrahedral orientation. These teachers were those whose orientations to teaching were statistically significantly different from other participants, as evidenced in the "narrowing" of their teaching practice to, predominantly, a symbolic representation for their Grade 12 classes in contrast to their more diversified practice in Grade 11. Using Aoki's reference to "tensionality" (1986), the study focuses on elucidating the tensions the teachers experienced in working in the space between Chemistry "curriculum-as-planned and curriculum-as-lived". Implications of this study in relation to Chemistry education curriculum policy and practice are discussed.

The recent revision of undergraduate curricular guidelines from the American Chemical Society Committee on Professional Training (ACS-CPT) has generated interest in examining new ways of organizing course sequences both for chemistry majors and for nonmajors. A radical reconstruction of the foundation-level chemistry curriculum is presented in which content has been reorganized into three sequences: structure, reactivity, and quantitation. It is proposed that these three areas represent fundamental aspects of chemistry that cross traditional domains and allow students to more quickly appreciate the breadth of the field. An overview of these sequences in the chemistry curriculum at CSB/SJU is described.

For the past nine years, we have been offering an interdisciplinary course for science majors: The Biology and Chemistry of Brewing. This course is primarily laboratory- and inquiry-based; from a total of 24 h of student/instructor contact time, approximately 6 h are devoted to lecture, and the other 18 h are divided between laboratory exercises, research, and field trips. Here, we describe course development as well as a summary of the laboratory assignments, with complete details of laboratory exercises available in the supporting information. This course is appropriate for students who have one year of general chemistry and general biology.

This study explores teachers' thinking about practical work, especially in regards to the types of practical work they privilege in their teaching of chemistry to support students in their learning. It seeks to investigate the view that practical work, especially the type of practical work selected, is "unthinkingly" and "uncritically" selected by chemistry teachers. The study is conducted at the end of a five-year professional development initiative associated with the implementation of a new curriculum chemistry initiative for Grade 11 and 12 advocating for a "tetrahedral" orientation to the teaching of chemistry emphasizing the "practical" experience on the "macroscopic" level as one of four essential dimensions of the chemistry learning experience. Responses indicate that teachers' thinking is informed by pragmatic, philosophical and psychological considerations; the latter largely informed by an understanding of the importance of "multi-level" chemistry experiences encouraged by the "tetrahedral" model.

This study aimed to examine the written arguments developed by college freshman students using the Science Writing Heuristic approach in inquiry-based general chemistry laboratory classrooms and its relationships with students' achievement in chemistry courses. Fourteen freshman students participated in the first year of the study while 19 freshman students participated in the second year of the study. Two frameworks, an analytical and a holistic argument framework, were developed to evaluate the written argument generated by students. The analytical framework scored each argument component separately and allocated a Total Argument score while the holistic framework evaluated the arguments holistically. Three hundred and sixty-eight samples from 33 students were evaluated. Stepwise regression analyses revealed that the evidence and the claims-evidence relationship components were identified as the most important predictors of the Total Argument and the Holistic Argument scores. Students' argument scores were positively correlated with their achievement, as measured by the final grade received for the general chemistry laboratory and the general chemistry lecture course.

The design and implementation of an inexpensive, high-resolution Littrow-type visible light spectrometer is presented. The instrument is built from low-cost materials and interfaced with the program RSpec for real-time spectral analysis, making it useful for classroom and laboratory exercises. Using a diffraction grating ruled at 1200 lines/mm and blazed in the first order, the spectrometer was found to have a resolution (R = ?/??) of 7500 (0.07 nm) at 525 nm allowing for detailed spectroscopic experiments such as an analysis of the iodine vibronic spectrum or multiplet line splitting in the solar spectrum. The simple design of the spectrometer makes it possible to exchange gratings of different lines/mm easily. The instrument provides a means of incorporating macroscopic experimental observations of visible spectroscopy into the undergraduate chemistry program in a practical hands-on way while avoiding the "black-box" nature of many modern spectrometers. Special attention is given to the possibilities such an instrument presents for the introductory chemistry curriculum and example demonstrations and experiments are provided.

This study investigated the impact on chemistry learning of the degree to which students embedded or integrated multiple modes of representation in end of unit writing-to-learn activities. A multi-case study approach utilizing quasi-experimental methodology involving intact high school chemistry classes taught by two different teachers was employed. Approximately half of the classes for each teacher were designated treatment classes and students in these classes participated in specific classroom activities designed to encourage the use of strategies to embed multiple modes within text in student writing. Control classes did not participate in these activities. All classes with the same teacher participated in identical end of unit writing tasks followed by identical end of unit assessments. Writing tasks and end of unit assessments were teacher designed and were therefore unique to each setting. Data from each teacher was initially analyzed independently to explore characteristics of student writing and student performance on end of unit assessments. This was followed by cross case analysis. Analysis of quantitative data indicated that for the first teacher (n = 70 students), treatment classes significantly outperformed control classes on two different measures of writing characteristics during a first unit of study, two measures of writing for the second unit, and three categories of end of unit instruction for the second unit. For the second teacher (n = 95), treatment classes outperformed control classes on two writing characteristics and three end of unit assessment categories during the only unit of study assessed. In addition, at both sites, significant positive correlations were found between all writing characteristic measurements and end of unit assessment performance. These results not only support the use of multimodal writing-to-learn tasks as a pedagogical tool to improve chemistry learning, but specifically suggest benefit when multiple modes are effectively linked within these tasks.

This experiment enlightens students on the use of environmental indicators and inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES) and demonstrates the ability of these monitoring tools to measure metal deposition in environmental samples (both as a result of lab-simulated and real events). In this two-part study, the initial experiment is designed to simulate the metal pollutants that originate from sparklers (small-scale fireworks). Two environmental indicators, surface water and Spanish moss ("Tillandsia usneoides"), are exposed to a lit sparkler in a closed container. The Spanish moss is subsequently microwave digested, and both samples are analyzed for 16 elements by ICP-AES. In part two, the metal content is analyzed in real samples taken from the environment (topsoil and surface water) surrounding the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) launch pads before and after a shuttle launch. Students learn several fundamental concepts including atomic spectroscopy, biomonitoring, microwave digestion, matrix interferences, matrix-matching, detection limits, and the standard additions method. (Contains 2 tables and 3 figures.)