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Topics associated with the chemical sciences form a significant part of the curriculum in science at the primary school level in the U.K. In this methodology paper, we demonstrate how a wide range of research articles associated with the chemical sciences can be disseminated to an elementary school audience and how children can carry out investigations associated with cutting-edge research in the classroom. We discuss how the Primary Science Teaching Trust's (PSTT's) "I bet you did not know" (IBYDK) articles and their accompanying Teacher Guides benefit children, primary (elementary) school teachers, and other stakeholders including the researchers themselves. We define three types of research articles; ones describing how children can reproduce the research themselves without much adaptation, others where children can mirror the research using similar methods, and some where an analogy can be used to explain the research. We provide exemplars of each type and some preliminary feedback on articles written.

Graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) hold a unique positionality as instructors and research mentors to undergraduate students, research mentees to faculty members, and employees to an institution. With limited pedagogical training and teaching resources, the enactment of planned teaching activities and learning resources may be influenced by how GTAs conceptualize their teacher identity, role, and experiences. In this study, we explored how chemistry GTAs enacted a scaffolded, cooperative-learning case-comparison activity in a second-semester organic chemistry laboratory course. Our study was guided by the conceptual framework of teacher noticing. Teacher noticing -- an instructor observing "important" instructional moments and connecting their observations to theory and practice -- is a part of developing instructional responses based on students' reasoning. Pairing this conceptual framework with a case study methodology, we recruited two GTAs, and conducted a pre-observation interview, two observations, and a post-observation interview. We explored GTAs' teacher noticing -- what they observed and interpreted as well as how they shaped and responded. We exposed the tension and the resolution between learning objectives (i.e., objectives set by the instructional team for students) and teaching objectives (i.e., objectives set by the GTAs for themselves and their students). GTAs' framing seemed to influence their shaping, and their shaping seemed to balance the instructional team's learning objective and GTAs' teaching objectives. Because chemistry GTAs serve as instructors in many science undergraduate courses, understanding the unique GTA framing may support both graduate and undergraduate learning experiences. Furthermore, our study has implications for researchers who design organic chemistry learning resources to consider different ways GTAs may support students' learning. This study additionally has implications for faculty instructors to develop transformative, consistent professional development opportunities focused on transparency, collaboration, and community in teacher learning.

An active-learning concurrent preparatory general chemistry course was adopted to replace a prerequisite course that lacked effectiveness in improving student outcomes. Our previous study showed that the concurrent course increased final exam performance and retention in a cohort of students. This paper studies the course modality impact of the concurrent preparatory course on student learning and retention. Three modes of instruction (in-person, online synchronous, and asynchronous) were offered for the concurrent preparatory general chemistry course. Significant differences were found in success on the final exam and retention for the first quarter of college-level general chemistry between in-person and online students. While students in the synchronous and asynchronous modalities performed differently in the concurrent preparatory general chemistry course, there were no significant differences in the final exam performance in the main general chemistry course or retention overall.

All learners have a contribution to make to the development of the Chemical Sciences, be that in novel ways to teach, and their perspectives and contexts, but also in research, both in chemical education and the wider Chemical Sciences. Through four case studies, this paper explores interactions with diverse groups and how this has altered perspectives on both teaching and research. The case studies include work with visually impaired adults, a project bringing together First Peoples in Australia with academics to explore old ways (traditional science) and new ways (modern approaches), primary (elementary) school perspectives on teaching science, and a project in South Africa to connect university and township communities. Not only do these case studies demonstrate the immense value these diverse groups bring to our understanding about how to learn, but they also bring new perspectives on how to view and solve chemical problems.

Gamification has a strong track record of improving student engagement and learning in the chemical sciences. Meta-analyses of different approaches to gamification have highlighted that providing a game fiction, encouraging students to work in teams, and breaking games into smaller "quests" are particularly effective. Here, we aimed to increase students' engagement and learning with four analytical biochemistry techniques (high-performance liquid chromatography, sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, Western blot, and mass spectrometry) by creating a game that required them to use every method to solve a "murder mystery". Our game was based on the popular games "Mafia" and "Among Us" and introduced an original game fiction relevant to our setting. Students attending the formative gamified session gave highly positive feedback. They indicated that they enjoyed the session and increased confidence in the methods involved. Free text comments praised many of the elements deliberately introduced into the game. To our surprise, the main criticism was that the session was not challenging enough. We developed a revised session that required students to undertake more detailed data interpretation, which students reported gave the expected increase in difficulty. All materials and code for running our session and generating new mysteries with original data are available online.

Women, ethnic minority, and less affluent groups are widely underrepresented in chemistry, a problem that is observed at all levels but begins before college matriculation takes place. The importance of representation and humanization of scientists is crucial. Despite limited progress over recent decades, poor visibility of role models from underrepresented groups remains problematic, emphasizing the importance of initiatives to positively introduce them in classroom settings. Through profiles of underrepresented "success stories" from academia and industry, the ChemDiverse project was developed to encourage underrepresented groups to pursue the chemical sciences at higher education levels by providing teachers with an easy and structured way of encouraging Scottish high school students into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Based on survey feedback from teachers at participating schools, it is a well-formulated project that is easy to implement within the context of the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence.

Success in general chemistry requires active engagement with course material. COVID-19 accelerated the move to online courses, creating a crucial need for engaging course activities. The Mysterious Compound chemistry game was designed to engage undergraduate students in introductory chemistry concepts while allowing the instructor and students to assess students' confidence in course concepts. When comparing pre- and postsurveys, there were significant differences (p < 0.001) in students' confidence levels on all the topics included. Positive and negative feedback was elicited and analyzed through student surveys. This game is an easy-to-implement engagement tool due to its versatile online format and adaptable design.

Teaching green chemistry within the K-12 classroom has a positive impact on attitudes and perceptions of chemistry in society for future scientists and professionals, resulting in safer, less hazardous chemistry experiments and demonstrations. The state of New York has taken advantage of the benefits that green chemistry provide in the classroom and is a leader in professional development for high school teachers throughout the state. Between 2011 and 2016, Beyond Benign and Siena College implemented 14 workshops across the state as part of New York's Department of Environmental Conservation goal of reducing hazardous chemicals in schools. At these workshops, 224 teachers were introduced to green chemistry principles and practices and provided resources for replacing traditional laboratory experiments with alternatives that used safer materials. Two professional development models were implemented, a one-day introductory workshop and a three-day train-the-trainer style in-depth workshop, using collaborative, hands-on, intensive, and peer-learning techniques. In response to a 2021 follow-up survey, participants shared that they continue to use skills from the professional development they received and reported sharing about green chemistry with peers, parents, and administrators. The long-term engagement of the participants indicates that successful models were implemented to provide a path to develop teacher leaders. Professional development models are presented herein for sharing best practices and approaches for training high school teachers on green chemistry, providing numerous benefits to both teachers and students in high school classrooms.

One of the main purposes of technology integration was for effective teaching and learning. The model of technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) was the suggested framework that could be applied in different facets of the teaching and learning process. Information communication tools (ICT) are the common infrastructures used for this process, and studies of TPACK application were mainly focused on normal desktop computers, and at the university level. However, there were uncommon studies of smart technologies such as SMART Board and SMART Notebook software at the secondary level, concerning TPACK applications. Against this background, the present study evaluated secondary school teachers on the TPACK applications in smart classrooms, as well as its effect on students' performance in chemistry. Through explanatory sequential mixed method design, results were highlighted and interpreted. These included lesson observation for quantitative data on four categories of knowledge: content knowledge, technological knowledge, technological pedagogical knowledge, and pedagogical content knowledge and students' performance in chemistry. While qualitative data about views were thematically analysed into strengths and challenges, as well as suggestions regarding TPACK applications and improving teaching and learning. The study involved seven teachers and 142 students, who were selected using a convenient sampling technique. The results revealed that teachers demonstrated the capacity to connect all categories of knowledge, develop, and conduct teaching where technology, pedagogy, and content interact. However, as the observed teachers acknowledged, it is challenging to overcome traditional teaching methods. This is due to several external factors, most notably the limited availability of digital equipment, and inadequate technology training, among others, which can improve the TPACK applications and promote students' engagement and learning. Further, the result of the intervention showed that teachers need continuous professional development, as it reflects significantly (p ?0.05) on students' performance in chemistry. These findings could serve as a foundation for creating policies that prioritise allocating funds to public schools for educational technology tools that will help teachers and students improve the teaching-learning process.

A parallel series of general chemistry courses for Life Science Majors was created in an effort to support students and improve general chemistry outcomes. We created a two-quarter enhanced general chemistry course series that is not remedial, but instead implements several evidence-based teaching practices including Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL), Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL), and the Learning Assistant (LA) model. We found that students who took enhanced general chemistry had higher persistence to the subsequent first organic chemistry course, and performed equally well in the organic course compared to their peers who took standard general chemistry. Students in the first enhanced general chemistry course also reported significantly higher belonging, although we were unable to determine if increased belonging was associated with the increased persistence to organic chemistry. Rather we found that the positive association between taking the enhanced general chemistry course and persistence to organic chemistry was mediated by higher grades received in the enhanced general chemistry course. Our findings highlight the responsibility we have as educators to carefully consider the pedagogical practices we use, in addition to how we assign student grades.

The high level of consumption of processed foods has an effect on human health. The consumption of doughnuts, pastries, fried chicken, French fried potatoes, snack chips, and imitation cheese is high among teenagers. These foods are generally rich in fats, although the focus has often been on the quantity rather than the quality of these fats. These products often contain saturated and trans fatty acids, which have adverse effects on triglycerides and cholesterol levels and raise lipoprotein(a) levels in plasma. These modifications are associated with the risk of developing certain health conditions, such as heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and obesity. It is important to note that not all fats have this negative effect on health. Dietary fats are an essential part that cannot be substituted for a healthy diet. A diet rich in healthy fats, such as monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, has an important benefit in human health. For this reason, it is crucial to read, identify, and interpret food labels in processed food to identify the presence of saturated or trans fats and choose healthier alternatives. Therefore, in this workshop, students in the first year of baccalaureate extracted oils and fats from a range of processed foods, quantifying and characterizing their nature by analyzing their fatty acid composition by gas chromatography. Subsequently, students compared their results according to the information given on the food package label and the literature. Finally, the students gave a talk on the work done in the laboratory and the knowledge gained from the students in lower grades, third and fourth years of high school, to raise awareness among these students.

In view of the mounting requirements for courses in nuclear chemistry and radiochemistry, hands-on experience in the separations of radioisotopes is imperative. Three separation techniques commonly used were introduced, coprecipitation, liquid-liquid extraction, and ion-exchange chromatography. Their principles and the associated fundamental thermodynamic concepts are detailed. Their respective experimental applications to the separations of radioisotopes of one rare earth element (europium) and two transition metals (cobalt and nickel) are discussed. In-classroom experimental settings are proposed, and experiment outcomes are presented, which can be beneficial for future implementation within nuclear chemistry and radiochemistry programs in higher education.

Laboratory chemical synthesis research typically lacks the preplanned hazard responses found in production-scale industrial laboratories. Chemical safety management is a known challenge in education-based facilities, which is concerning for academic and national laboratory environments working with inexperienced student researchers. At the Molecular Foundry, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) user facility, a chemical safety management form has been developed that follows DOE's Integrated Safety Management (ISM) process, which evaluates the risks and hazards associated with all forms of work. An ISM form for chemical synthesis is described here in detail. It is regularly used to guide chemical safety discussions between researchers and supervisors, to plan accident responses, and to establish triggers, at which point a reevaluation of the work is needed. The form makes it straightforward to know what limits researchers may work within and makes it clear which procedure changes will require a new safety assessment and discussion before work continues. The ISM form for synthesis is being successfully used in three fields of chemistry: Inorganic, Organic, and Biological. The form has also been adapted for liquid sample preparation in electron microscopy. Upper management, supervisors, students, and general users are engaged in this process. It is hoped that sharing this knowledge will enable educational institutions and other laboratories to develop similar methods to help researchers and supervisors understand the hazards as well as the working limits of any protocol, helping researchers to work more independently and safely within the laboratory.

The use of red cabbage ("Brassica oleracea var. capitata F. rubra") extract as a pH indicator is a versatile and popular demonstration that is employed by educators in many schools and universities. Previous variations of this demonstration have used red cabbage extracts to prepare paper that changes color when solutions of acid or base are applied as "inks". In this report, we highlight the ability of red cabbage extracts to function as invisible inks. Colorless solutions are prepared by bleaching anthocyanin extracts with aqueous sodium metabisulfite, and the resulting mixture can then be used to write hidden messages on paper. The invisible messages can be revealed by the addition of citric acid solution, or by using potassium aluminum sulfate (alum) as developers. The demonstration does not require specialist equipment or chemicals, and options to use additional plant sources to prepare the ink are described.

Prior research suggests most students do not glean valid cues from provided visuals, resulting in reduced metacomprehension accuracy. Across 4 experiments, we explored how the presence of instructional visuals affects students' metacomprehension accuracy and cue-use for different types of metacognitive judgments. Undergraduates read texts on biology (Study 1a and b) or chemistry (Study 2 and 3) topics, made various judgments (test, explain, and draw) for each text, and completed comprehension tests. Students were randomly assigned to receive only texts (text-only condition) or texts with instructional visualizations (text-and-image condition). In Studies 1b, 2 and 3, students also reported the cues they used to make each judgment. Across the set of studies, instructional visualizations harmed relative metacomprehension accuracy. In Studies 1a and 2, this was especially the case when students were asked to judge how well they felt they could draw the processes described in the text. But in Study 3, this was especially the case when students were asked to judge how well they would do on a set of comprehension tests. In Studies 2 and 3, students who reported basing their judgments on representation-based cues demonstrated more accurate relative accuracy than students who reported using heuristic based cues. Further, across these studies, students reported using visual cues to make their draw judgments, but not their test or explain judgments. Taken together, these results indicate that instructional visualizations can hinder metacognitive judgment accuracy, particularly by influencing the types of cues students use to make judgments of their ability to draw key concepts.

When designing a study, the sampling method for selecting research participants is an important decision with a host of considerations. When designing a professional development (PD) program with a limited number of spaces, the method of choosing participants from the applicants is also important. When research and professional development are entwined, sets of sampling criteria could conflict. Additionally, in a mixed methods study, such as the one undertaken by the researchers, additional trade-offs exist when considering the many potential methods of sampling and participant selection. In this report, we present a novel solution to the problem of multiple-criterion-focused selection of research and PD participants when the number of applicants to participate outnumbers the availability of resources. By using a weighted ranking system, we were able to incorporate multiple purposive sampling criteria in a simultaneous, rather than sequential, fashion. This allowed us to focus our evaluation of chemistry-specific free-response questions on a narrower pool of finalists and more consistently rate their responses. This multipurposive sampling method and a novel tool developed herein have broad implications for both sampling for chemistry education research and participant selection in professional development.

Safety skills are recognized as essential lab skills for students, necessitating the incorporation of active learning of chemical safety education into undergraduate curricula. Meaningful engagement of students in training and education on principle-based lab safety skills, chemical information sources, and general safety instructions is crucial for the development and enhancement of their safety awareness, knowledge, and ability to apply safe practices. However, limited research has comprehensively examined students' lab safety behavior, mindset, and culture. In this study, we investigate the cognitive engagement and behavior exhibited by students as well as their questions and concerns regarding lab safety. The findings suggest a misalignment between students' behavior and their safety mindset, highlighting the importance of further research and interventions to bridge this gap.

The purpose of this study is to investigate differences between women and men in chemistry, as reflected in their responses to a global gender gap survey. The survey was conducted in 2018; responses from 1,343 valid participants across the globe were collected and analyzed. The main results show that first, women were more likely to list their parents and themselves as important influences in their university studies than men. This result was consistent regardless of the Human Development Index (HDI, an index developed by the United Nations assessing the development of a country) and employment sectors. Also, men students reported more positive relationships and support from their advisors or supervisors than women. More women than men indicated that they had personally encountered sexual harassment at school or work. Also, in general, more men than women indicated that they had never experienced discrimination in the assessment or evaluation of their achievement across different HDI regions and in different employment sectors. Men reported having more research resources than women. More women than men indicated that their careers had influenced their decisions about their children, marriage, or long-term partnership across high and low HDI regions and employment sectors. Finally, women submitted fewer journal articles than men in the past five years, and this gender difference was also seen in respondents from both high and low HDI regions and working in industry. In contrast, by employment sector, the gender differences were relatively small.

Specifications grading is a relatively recent approach to assessing student learning. In this approach, students make progress toward completion of a course by demonstrating mastery of specific skills or material. The assessment tools are short, frequent exercises that can be attempted multiple times until mastered. This contrasts with the traditional, exam-based assessment of student learning. There are multiple benefits to the specifications grading-based strategy, including reduced test anxiety, better knowledge retention, and increased flexibility. In this study, specifications grading was implemented into an upper-level biochemistry course at a private, liberal arts university. The student cohort consisted almost exclusively of junior and senior biochemistry, biology, and chemistry majors. Students earned points for demonstrating mastery on each of 12 short quizzes in addition to points earned from laboratory exercises and on the cumulative final exam. Student attitudes were assessed using three surveys that were administered at the beginning, middle, and end of the course. The survey results indicated that the students had overall favorable opinions of the specifications grading approach and its use in this course. A comparison of student performance on the quizzes to their performance on the final exam showed that the students learned and retained the course material. Combining the survey and performance data, we demonstrated that the students' perceptions of their learning correlated well with their performances on the specifications grading tools. Together, these results indicated that specifications grading is an effective approach to assessing student learning and to maintaining student enthusiasm in an upper-level biochemistry course.

The study complements previous research on a case study of chemistry lesson plans design and teaching. It has been found that chemistry education in the Gambia has been challenged by ineffective lesson plans design and teaching, and laboratory resources. The consequences have been unsatisfactory learning outcomes. However, what could lead to unsatisfactory learning outcomes in chemistry if basic stoichiometry is considered challenging? This has led the present study to develop a survey research method to assess students' misconceptions on basic stoichiometry. Through a systematic random sampling technique, 285-grade eleventh students were selected. The topics covered in the study included interpreting the pH of common substances, balancing basic stoichiometric equations, and inferences of experimental results. Students' responses to misconception survey questions were reviewed and analysed. The results indicated that students could be taught some basic principles of stoichiometry. Students who were challenged to correct inferences from experimental results need to develop their knowledge better. Accordingly, the study concluded that chemistry education can indicate the success of introducing basic stoichiometry, including referencing to the lower grades, rather than secondary grades. Nevertheless, what this study could recommend was to examine the possible source and cause of such misconceptions concerning basic stoichiometry reactions and balancing.

Twenty-first-century teaching focuses on the standards of teaching practice to improve instruction and learning outcomes. Teachers as the key figures in school are called upon to reflect on their instructional practices and exemplify the highest standard for teaching grounded in global best practices. This study aimed to assess the teachers' instructional practices and identify challenges before and during the COVID-19 pandemic to effectively implement instructional strategies in the teaching of chemistry. The respondents were composed of 107 public Junior High School chemistry teachers in the 8th district of Cavite. The mixed-method sequential explanatory research design was used. Quantitative data were collected using the Science Instructional Practices Survey and the questionnaire on the teachers' perceptions of emergency remote teaching, while qualitative data were gathered utilizing focus group discussions, classroom observations, and virtual interviews. The findings of the study showed that chemistry teachers' instructional practices include prior knowledge and traditional instruction. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, four major themes emerged as challenges to teachers in effectively implementing various instructional strategies: learner characteristics, teacher competency, the language of instruction, and classroom management practices. Five themes were identified as challenges to teachers during the pandemic, namely, appropriate assessment strategy, feedback mechanism, technology usage and availability, parental involvement, and appropriate teaching-learning materials. The findings in this study provided valuable inputs in the development of an innovative instructional model for designing a chemistry lesson.

The Kigali Amendment introduced a new family of chemical compounds, which do not contribute to stratospheric ozone depletion but present a high global warming potential, under the watch of the Montreal Protocol in 2016. Earlier this year, a press note from the World Meteorological Organization entitled "Ozone layer recovery is on track, helping avoid global warming by 0.5°C" caught our attention because of the wrong conclusions that can be potentially drawn by laypersons due to an apparent linkage of ozone depletion and global warming problems. Public communication of the Montreal Protocol since the Kigali Amendment should be more careful than ever to avoid lessening the social perception of the threat of climate change, particularly considering that society already has a distorted representation of these problems, assuming causal relations between ozone depletion and climate change, that could lead to unfounded optimism towards the climate crisis.

Providing students with feedback on their performance is a critical part of enhancing student learning in chemistry and is often integrated into homework assignments, quizzes, and exams. However, not all feedback is created equal, and the type of feedback the student receives can dramatically alter the utility of the feedback to reinforce correct processes and assist in correcting incorrect processes. This work seeks to establish a ranking of how eleven different types of testing feedback affected student retention or growth in performance on multiple-choice general chemistry questions. These feedback methods ranged from simple noncorrective feedback to more complex and engaging elaborative feedback. A test-retest model was used with a one-week gap between the initial test and following test in general chemistry I. Data collection took place at multiple institutions over multiple years. Data analysis used four distinct grading schemes to estimate student performance. These grading schemes included dichotomous scoring, two polytomous scoring techniques, and the use of item response theory to estimate students' true score. Data were modeled using hierarchical linear modeling which was set up to control for any differences in initial abilities and to determine the growth in performance associated with each treatment. Results indicated that when delayed elaborative feedback was paired with students being asked to recall/rework the problem, the largest student growth was observed. To dive deeper into student growth, both the differences in specific content-area improvement and the ability levels of students who improved the most were analyzed.

Despite problem solving being a core skill in chemistry, students often struggle to solve chemistry problems. This difficulty may arise from students trying to solve problems through memorising algorithms. Goldilocks Help serves as a problem-solving scaffold that supports students through structured problem solving and its elements, such as planning and evaluation. In this study, we investigated how first-year chemistry students solved problems, when taught with Goldilocks Help, and whether their problem-solving success and approaches changed over the course of one semester. The data comprised of student written problem-solving work, and was analysed using frequency analysis and grouped based on the problem-solving success and the extent of the demonstrated problem-solving elements. Throughout the course of semester, students exhibited increasingly consistent demonstration of structured problem solving. Nonetheless, they encountered difficulties in fully demonstrating such aspects of problem solving as understanding and evaluating concepts, which demand critical thinking and a firm grasp of chemistry principles. Overall, the study indicated progress in successful and structured problem solving, with a growing proportion of students demonstrating an exploratory approach as time progressed. These findings imply the need for incorporation of metacognitive problem-solving scaffolding, exposure to expert solutions, reflective assignments, and rubric-based feedback into wide teaching practice. Further research is required to extend the exploration of the effectiveness of metacognitive scaffolding, in particular "via" think-aloud interviews, which should help identify productive and unproductive uses of the problem-solving elements.

Understanding how individual students cognitively engage while participating in small group activities in a General Chemistry class can provide insight into what factors may be influencing their level of engagement. The Interactive-Constructive-Active-Passive (ICAP) framework was used to identify individual students' level of engagement on items in multiple activities during a General Chemistry course. The effects of timing, group size, and question type on engagement were investigated. Results indicate students' engagement varied more in the first half of the term, and students demonstrated higher levels of engagement when working in smaller groups or subsets of larger groups when these groups contained students with similar levels of knowledge. Finally, the relation between question type (algorithmic "versus" explanation) and engagement depended on the activity topic. In an activity on Solutions and Dilutions, there was a significant relation where algorithmic items had higher occurrences of Interactive engagement. The implications of this work regarding teaching and research are discussed.

Peer Instruction (PI), a student-centred teaching method, engages students during class through structured, frequent questioning, facilitated by classroom response systems. The central feature of PI is the ConcepTest, a question designed to help resolve student misconceptions around the subject content. Within our coordination chemistry PI session, we provide students two opportunities to answer each question -- once after a round of individual reflection, and then again after a round of augmented reality (AR)-supported peer discussion. The second round provides students with the opportunity to "switch" their original response to a different answer. The percentage of right answers typically increase after peer discussion: most students who answer incorrectly in the individual round switch to the correct answer after the peer discussion. For the six questions posed, we analysed students' discussions, in addition to their interactions with our AR tool. Furthermore, we analyse students' self-efficacy, and how this, in addition to factors such as ConcepTest difficulty influence response switching. For this study, we found that students are more likely to switch their responses for more difficult questions, as measured using the approach of Item Response Theory. Students with high pre-session self-efficacy switched from right-to-wrong (p < 0.05) and wrong-to-different wrong less often, and switched from wrong-to-right more often than students with low self-efficacy. Students with a low assessment of their problem solving and science communication abilities were significantly more likely to switch their responses from right to wrong than students with a high assessment of those abilities. Analysis of dialogues revealed evidence of the activation of knowledge elements and control structures.

Design activities are gaining interest as rich contexts for learning science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects. STEM teachers may find this challenging however, as designing requires support that they are not used to providing. In a subject like chemistry, teachers would have to balance creativity and responsibility for the students with concept learning and safety in the classroom. In a case study, we analyzed the verbal interactions of three teachers with their students during design activities in the classroom, with the aim of understanding what teachers and students talk about and how chemistry teachers support the students with their designs. During the lesson, students worked on the design of a self-heating or self-cooling cup, while also performing chemistry experiments to learn about the energy effects of reactions. Such a lesson reflects what design activities in the chemistry classroom could look like. We described the topics that teachers and students talk about, revealing that teachers support students through several types of feedback and questions. We also found that teachers support design tasks in a more open, constructive, and encouraging way than is used for experiments and chemistry concepts, which are supported in a closed, clarifying, and steering manner.

We explored chemical engineering students' approaches to learning, study-related burnout, and perceptions of peer and self-assessment in a challenging physical chemistry thermodynamics course. Cluster analysis revealed three learning profiles based on students' approaches to learning: students who scored high in both organised studying and the deep approach to learning, students who scored high in the unreflective approach to learning, and students who scored high in all three approaches. According to our findings, students who employed deep learning strategies and managed their time carefully experience the least study-related burnout. These students also felt more efficacious when participating in assessment and had fever negative experiences of both peer and self-assessment. Consequently, physical chemistry educators should adopt practices that facilitate a deeper approach to learning, including paying careful attention to course workload and utilising teaching methodologies that can foster the deep approach like peer and self-assessment.

Students often experience social and psychological barriers to success in General Chemistry, which is a key gateway to many students' science pathways. Learning assistants (LAs) have the potential to reduce these barriers and to strengthen students' sense of belonging in General Chemistry and STEM more broadly. Here, we used a 17-item Likert scale to determine whether incorporating LAs into General Chemistry I and II enhances students' sense of belonging in these courses. The incorporation of LAs into General Chemistry I had a significant positive effect and a medium to large effect size for students in all student groups examined: women and men; students in both racially and ethnically underrepresented and well-represented groups; first- and continuing-generation students. In General Chemistry II, similar results were observed for women and men; students in well-represented racial and ethnic groups; continuing-generation students. Further, we asked students to reflect on the impact that working with LAs had on their sense of belonging in STEM and confidence in talking about science. Sixty percent of students indicated that working with LAs had a positive impact on their STEM belonging, with five themes describing LA impacts: reducing isolation, serving as inspirational role models, providing mentoring, increasing opportunities for engagement and confidence building, and serving as accessible and approachable sources of support. Sixty-one percent of students also indicated that working with LAs increased their confidence in talking about science, with three themes emerging: fostering an environment with a lower risk of negative judgment, providing increased opportunities for feedback, and supporting students as they practiced their growing skills. Together, these results indicate that LAs can be an important means to reduce social and psychological barriers for students in gateway science courses, increasing their sense that they belong to the class and STEM more broadly.

The time-resolved detection of very low intensity light emission has become an essential capability in many areas of science including molecular biology, fluorimetry, DNA sequencing, virus detection, nanoparticle research, and optical materials development. Among the most basic techniques for the detection of rapidly fluctuating low-intensity light is photon counting. Despite its extensive applications in the physical and biological sciences and engineering, photon counting techniques have traditionally been left out of undergraduate curricula due to the prohibitive cost of the equipment and the complexity of its operation. However, the recent development of the low-cost silicon photomultiplier device, a solid-state single photon avalanche diode detector, has enabled the availability of easy-to-operate, low voltage, advanced timing performance, and highly sensitive photon counting systems well within the budget of undergraduate teaching laboratories. In this contribution, we provide a strategy to introduce undergraduate interdisciplinary chemistry and physics students to silicon-photomultiplier-based photon counting through the interesting phenomenon of delayed fluorescence from photosystem II in plants. This experiment is perhaps best suited for an upper-level undergraduate laboratory and should stimulate the interest of students across a wide variety of disciplines, from physical chemistry to molecular biophysics to photonics instrumental analysis.

In our previous work, we piloted a specifications grading system in an organic chemistry laboratory course with 37 students. Our current work describes the scale up of that specifications grading system to a course with over 1,000 students. Strategies used for keeping the system manageable and mitigating the time commitment required to do so are described. We found that the time necessary to grade student work and manage the specifications grading implementation of the course was not any greater than for the previous, points-based course, that grade-related interactions were more positive, and that student letter grades increased. Despite the increase in the final letter grades, we encountered some resistance to the grading system from students and graduate teaching assistants. Here, we explore their concerns and address the difficulty of alternative grading methods in overcoming habituation to traditional points-based grading systems. Future work is needed to evaluate student and graduate teaching assistant buy-in, to assess potential improvement in student work, and to address questions regarding equity in specifications grading systems.

Teacher-teacher feedback is an important feature of professional learning. However, deeply ingrained socio-pedagogical norms may affect both the nature and content of feedback, constraining its effectiveness. Prior studies have reported that avoiding critique and providing excessively generic information can hinder pedagogical inquiry and adoption of reform-based instruction. To better understand the nuances of socio-pedagogical norms for chemistry-specific settings, we investigate the conversational functions and the ways in which teacher-teacher feedback addresses macroscopic, symbolic, and particulate levels of representation within lessons they experienced as students. We deductively coded 16 instances of feedback provided by eight VisChem Institute-2 teacher participants. Results from the first phase of analyses indicate that teacher-teacher feedback largely comprised of praise with few instances of critique. The second phase of analyses shows that teacher-teacher feedback most frequently referenced the particulate level. Synthesizing the results, we find that more chemistry-specific topics were referenced in conversational functions that prepare teachers for pedagogical change. Our findings suggest foregrounding the particulate level may support teachers' critical engagement with each other. We thus recommend that teacher educators and professional developers base mutual engagement, shared repertoire, and the joint enterprise on the particulate level when constructing a community of reformed chemistry teaching practice. We also provide insights on how our findings can be adapted for chemistry graduate teaching assistants and raise new questions about investigating spiraling, dialogic forms of feedback.

Artificial intelligence (AI) technology has the potential to revolutionize the education sector. This study sought to determine the efficacy of ChatGPT to correctly answer questions a learner would use and to elucidate how the AI was processing potential prompts. Our goal was to evaluate the role of prompt formats, response consistency, and reliability of ChatGPT responses. Analyzing prompt format, we see that the data do not demonstrate a statistically significant difference between multiple-choice and free-response questions. Neither format achieved scores higher than 37%, and testing at different locations did not improve scores. Interestingly, ChatGPT's free version provides accurate responses to discipline-specific questions that contain information from unrelated topics as distractors, improving its accuracy over the free-response questions. It is important to consider, while ChatGPT can identify the correct answer within a given context, it may not be able to determine if the answer it selects is correct computationally or through analysis. The results of this study can guide future AI and ChatGPT training practices and implementations to ensure they are used to their fullest potential.

Laboratory automation and data science are valuable new skills for all chemists, but most pedagogical activities involving automation to date have focused on upper-level coursework. Herein, we describe a combined computational and experimental lab suitable for a first-year undergraduate general chemistry course, in which these topics are introduced in the context of determination of the solubility equilibrium constant of lead iodide. Students analyze their data using logistic regression analysis, which has a physical interpretation in terms of the solubility equilibrium expression and its stoichiometric coefficients. In addition to laboratory automation, data visualization, and data fitting skills, students also practice core laboratory skills such as the preparation of stock solutions using a volumetric flask and the use of micropipets. To keep the lab affordable, we demonstrate the use of a low-cost 3D-printed liquid dispensing robot to perform the automated experiment in addition to a commercial liquid-handling robot. Example pre- and post-lab computational notebooks are provided in both Mathematica and Python programming languages.

Studies concerning peer-led team learning (PLTL) have shown cognitive and affective benefits to both students and peer leaders, and PLTL has been shown to be effective in diverse environments. However, some studies suggest that not all students may fully engage in group work. Given this need for leaders in STEM and chemistry specifically to create inclusive environments, we conducted a mixed-methods study to explore the impact of leading PLTL sessions on peer leaders' perceptions of inclusive practices and skills and students' perceptions of the leader's inclusion skills. Via surveys, responses were collected from new and experienced (returning) chemistry peer leaders (N = 39) across two time points (fall of 2020 and spring of 2021). Leaders reported moderate to high levels of confidence in most of the 18 inclusion-oriented items. Leader responses from a free-response question on inclusion-skill development (N = 28) were coded into three categories: Collaboration, Environment, and Group-awareness. Data from peer leaders were compared with responses from a PLTL participant feedback survey (N = 206), which corroborated the skills leaders reported cultivating in practice; i.e., (1) students reported observing leaders' practicing collaboration and environment inclusivity skills and (2) students agreed to strongly agree that leaders created a safe, comfortable environment and encouraged participation from all group members. Overall, our PLTL program cultivates leaders who strive to create inclusive groups, and students largely support this notion; this study adds to the literature on small-group inclusion and peer-leader training.

Green chemistry and chemical safety complement each other in reducing adverse health and safety outcomes. However, it is imperative to train students of advanced synthetic chemistry, beyond reaction mechanisms, to proactively connect complex experiments with hazard analysis, risk minimization, and planetary sustainability. Virtual experiments provide an opportunity for students to critically reinvent the way organic synthetic chemistry is practiced and become stakeholders in designing their own green chemistry experiments. We present a novel project-based learning (PBL) experience where students designed their own, multistep, green chemistry experiment using the virtual platform Beyond Labz, supported with primary literature. The designed experiments capitalized on the safe, energy, and resource nonintensive nature of the virtual platform to inspect chemical variations that would traditionally be hazardous or inaccessible within a physical undergraduate laboratory. Students worked collaboratively in guided groups to synthesize a designated product, combining literature-based procedures and structural analysis through thin layer chromatography (TLC), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopies. They estimated reagent amounts, calculated atom economy, E-factor, and the process mass intensity of the reactions, and used safety data sheets to assess the inherent hazards of the reactions to recommend modifications, substitutions, or greener alternatives. Students also developed critical scientific communication skills by presenting their designed green experiments in a virtual presentation and individual technical reports. Student survey data indicated that designing their own green synthetic experiments was effective in cultivating a keen awareness of laboratory safety, chemical waste and their impacts and also in inspiring students to become stakeholders in sustainable chemical design and decision making.

Computational and atmospheric chemistry are two important branches of contemporary chemistry. With the present topical nature of climate change and global warming, it is more crucial than ever that students are aware of and exposed to atmospheric chemistry, with an emphasis on how modeling may aid in understanding how atmospherically relevant chemical compounds interact with incoming solar radiation. Nonetheless, computational and atmospheric chemistry are under-represented in most undergraduate chemistry curricula. In this manuscript, we describe a simple and efficient method for simulating the electronic absorption spectral profiles of atmospherically relevant molecules that may be utilized in an undergraduate computer laboratory. The laboratory results give students hands-on experience in computational and atmospheric chemistry, as well as electronic absorption spectroscopy.

This paper investigates the frequency and contextual uses of the metadiscoursal devices of evidentials, code glosses, hedges and boosters in four academic disciplines, namely, linguistics, literature, chemistry and medicine. Hyland and Hinkel's taxonomies of metadiscourse provided the search items. The data analyzed consisted of a corpus of forty research articles, divided into four subcorpora equally drawn from the four disciplines. The corpus was randomly selected from leading international journals and processed by the corpus analysis toolkit, AntConc. The AntConc concordancer was employed so that each metadiscourse item could be counted and examined in its context. The findings show that hedges were the most frequent metadiscoursal device, which may be seen as an indication of the academic authors' tendency to use language of caution and uncertainty. The second rank in frequency was occupied by evidentials, which reflects the need for academic writing to establish credibility. Code glosses and boosters have the least frequency, which may measure for the value of conciseness in academic discourse. The analysis also shows that linguistics and literature exceed the two scientific disciplines, chemistry and medicine, in the frequency of the four metadiscoursal devices. Linguistics manifests the highest distribution of hedges and code glosses, medicine the highest number of boosters, literature the highest frequency of evidentials. Chemistry has the lowest frequency of all metadiscoursal devices. This study aims to help students of academic writing to learn about the use of the selected metadiscoursal devices in many disciplines. Future studies need to investigate more metadiscoursal devices in other academic disciplines.

This article outlines an exploratory study that investigated students' perceptions of the benefits and disadvantages of lecture recordings delivered as part of an introductory chemistry program in the UK during the COVID-19 lockdown in Spring 2020. Three features of these lecture recordings are considered: 1) the production of a series of mini-lectures rather than 50 minute recordings; 2) the inclusion of quiz questions in the video timeline; and 3) the inclusion of a picture-in-picture talking head showing the instructor alongside a captured screen. Analysis of survey data indicates that a majority of students felt that each of these features had a positive impact on their learning and/or experience, with a significant number expressing a preference for the retention of online lectures after the resumption of on-campus teaching. Qualitative data provides valuable insight regarding the specific aspects of the recorded lectures that were perceived to enhance the student experience, supporting the design of future provision both during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. The generalizability of the recommendations is also discussed, along with the limitations of the study.

Many instructors globally reported a lack of engagement in synchronous online sessions during the COVID-19 lockdowns. This article outlines the use of collaborative small group tasks mediated via breakout rooms in Teams during the 2020/21 academic year. The rationale for the activities, which are available for download, is described along with details of the evaluation of their impact. Key findings were that a majority of students reported enjoying the tasks and felt that they improved their learning during online sessions.

Studies have demonstrated the positive impact of the Learning Assistant (LA) model on student learning across various disciplines, demographics, and course types. In order to investigate the effect of exposure to the LA program on student learning and success in a large Chemistry course, a pilot was launched in one of two sections of General Chemistry II at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) in spring 2020, with the addition of LAs as the sole experimental variable. The researchers hypothesized that the LA model positively impacts equity in the classroom with increased learning gains across student demographics. A t-test was used to determine the significance in differences between student exam scores in the LA and non-LA section. The researchers found that student learning was significantly higher in the LA section versus the non-LA section (p < 0.01). Students participating in the LA section (N = 275) had stronger outcomes than students in the non-LA section (N = 290). In addition, students in the LA section were more likely to pass the course, enroll in the subsequent (Organic Chemistry) course within one year, and were more likely to be retained at the institution. These success rates held for all students, particularly for students historically underrepresented in chemistry.

Radioactive isotopes are an essential part of everyday life and an expanding area of research in the fields of medicine, catalysis, and energy. Here, we describe an educational activity that introduces the concept of radioactive decay and the corresponding benefits, risks, and safe handling strategies. Specifically, we have developed an interactive card game, "Radioactivity and [superscript 235]U," as an activity which can be implemented in a fully remote setting without the need for a trained instructor or specific, previously acquired expertise. The card game consists of 72 playing cards and 50 tokens and contains links to two remotely accessible introductory videos on (1) fundamental concepts of radioactive decay and (2) instructions on gameplay. The goal of this activity is to familiarize students with the concepts of radioactive decay, shielding, and applications of radioactive isotopes. Gameplay incentivizes students to prevent, reduce, or limit exposure to a radioactive dose by collecting and using shielding cards, while also learning facts about radioactive isotopes and their stable congeners. The game was tested with undergraduate college students. Pre- and postactivity questionnaires measured the students' familiarity and opinion on the use and harm of radioactivity. The results indicate that the activity is suitable to introduce basic concepts surrounding radionuclides, radioactive decay, and shielding. We additionally observed a shift in students' opinions of nuclear chemistry and its role in the world from neutral to slightly positive after the workshop.

The effectiveness of a formal charge method to draw Lewis structures that was developed by Curnow was studied quantitatively by direct comparison of two groups of students: one of which was taught the new formal charge method and another that was taught a traditional method. Students' marks on a common assessment were found to improve by approximately 5% when taught the formal charge method, and students who used this method were able to identify the correct answer with fewer attempts. These differences were found to be statistically significant.

Artificial photosynthesis is a promising approach to generate commodity chemicals using abundant chemical feedstocks and renewable energy sources. Despite its importance, affordable and effective hands-on classroom activities that demonstrate artificial photosynthesis and teach key concepts, especially for primary school students, are lacking. Educating young students on this topic is a critical step in the development of the next-generation energy workforce, especially one that is diverse in race and gender. We hypothesize that an effective approach to educate a broad range of young students on the topic of artificial photosynthesis is through the use of an active learning-based lesson plan that employs cheap and accessible materials. This hypothesis is confirmed by evaluating the understanding of fifth grade students with a survey before and after a lesson plan on artificial photosynthesis that uses active-learning techniques and uses safe and highly accessible materials (baking soda, tap water, plastic jars, Ni coil, alligator clips, and a solar cell) to perform solar-powered water splitting. The lesson plan and survey questions are designed to align with the educational outcomes for fifth grade classrooms in California and to address four general learning objectives: (1) Motivations of Artificial Photosynthesis, (2) Applications of Artificial Photosynthesis, (3) Inputs and Outputs of Artificial Photosynthesis, and (4) Engineering Design for Artificial Photosynthesis. The survey data demonstrate a statistically significant improvement in overall student understanding from the lesson plan. Importantly, the data show that the lesson plan presented here is effective at narrowing the performance gap between minority students and overly represented groups.

We have developed a guided-inquiry laboratory exercise in which students perform viscosity measurements to infer the structure of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) in aqueous solution. The activity combines both experiments and modeling. In the experimental portion of the exercise, students measure the viscosity of several solutions of PVA with differing molar masses. They discover that the size of molecules does not increase with the cube root of molar mass, as expected for objects with uniform density, but rather with the square root of molar mass. In the modeling part of the experiment, students use random numbers to create two-dimensional "random walk" objects on paper or on a computer. They discovered that the size of a random-walk object increases with the square root of the walk length. Combining what they discovered through the random walk models with what they learned from the viscosity measurement, they conclude that the structure of PVA dissolved in water (a theta solvent for PVA) is consistent with a random walk structure.

Specific to the topic of oxidation-reduction (redox), teachers are obligated by the discipline to prioritise symbolic traditions such as writing equations, documenting oxidation states, and describing changes (e.g., what undergoes oxidation/reduction). Although the chemistry education research community endorses connecting the vertices of Johnstone's triangle, how symbolic traditions undermine chemistry concept development, especially during lesson planning and teaching, is underexplored. To clarify this gap, we use the Mangle of Practice framework to unpack the clash between symbolic vs. particulate-focused instruction. We investigate teachers' (n = 3) co-planning and micro-teaching of a redox learning design at the VisChem Institute-2 using a narrative approach and video research methods. Our results show that the traditions of redox instruction are problematically entrenched in chemistry symbols. Mnemonics, the single replacement reaction scheme, and the written net ionic equation all constrain instruction focused on chemical mechanism and causality in various ways. We assert that the nature of redox knowledge in terms of what is worth teaching and learning must first be re-evaluated for reform-based efforts to succeed. Implications and suggestions for chemistry teaching and research at both secondary and tertiary levels are discussed.

Climate change is a critical scientific and social issue of our time, yet the topic is not frequently discussed by the general public. Additionally, misconceptions about the topic persist. One important aspect of climate change is the greenhouse effect. This activity adds a greenhouse gas discussion to an existing module about molecular shape and modeling. The module links the greenhouse effect to climate change. The activity has been used in several introductory chemistry settings. A discussion of student-generated answers and student-reported learning gains is presented.

The implementation of a laboratory exercise in an undergraduate chemistry course, where students perform a comparison of three different synthetic methods toward [Cu(Cl)(IPr)]-complexes (IPr = N,N'-bis(2,6-diisopropylphenyl)imidazol-2-ylidene), is described. The students are introduced to the continuous improvement of reactions in terms of green chemistry and are provided a taste of mechanochemistry as a synthetic methodology. The direct comparison of three methods leading to the copper complexes provides an opportunity to teach green chemistry metrics including atom economy, environmental factor, mass intensity, reaction mass efficiency, and optimum efficiency, as well as Green Star; and challenges them to question the use of solvents in chemical syntheses.

The development of equitable grading systems that provide students with effective feedback and provide instructors with an efficient means of assessment are of deep interest to chemical educators. A recent trend in chemical education, and STEM education more broadly, has been the use of specifications, or specs, grading that emphasizes mastery of material through recursive methods and standards-based grading. Students must meet certain standards in multiple specifications to earn a particular letter grade, as opposed to more traditional points-based grading systems. However, changing from a points-based grading system to specs grading requires significant effort by the instructor, especially in courses with an integrated lab component. In this manuscript we describe the development of a hybrid-specs grading system implemented in our second semester general chemistry course over the 2021-22 academic year. We describe the development of the hybrid-specs grading system, student performance as measured by shifts in letter grade distributions and final exam scores, and student perceptions of the new grading system. Notes for practitioners on the implementation of the grading system are in the Supporting Information. Finally, we also discuss improvements of the system for implementation in future courses.