Undergraduate Chemistry Laboratory Research Articles

Goals for the Undergraduate Instructional Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory When Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences Are Implemented: A National Survey

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) are a promising approach for incorporating inquiry-based instruction into the undergraduate chemistry laboratory curriculum. This study used data from a national survey of inorganic chemistry faculty members (n = 142) to investigate CURE implementation in the inorganic chemistry instructional laboratory. Results indicate that faculty members who implement CUREs place greater emphasis on a distinct set of instructional goals when compared to faculty members who do not implement CUREs. CURE implementation was further associated with a range of instructional and departmental characteristics, including group-only student work, independent course development by faculty instructors, limited graduate TA support, and ACS certification of degree programs. Findings from this investigation point toward (1) a need for increased efforts focused on supporting CURE implementation, (2) productive avenues through which curriculum designers and communities of practice can provide this support, and (3) needed areas of research that will further inform these efforts.

CoLab: A workshop-based undergraduate research experience for entering college students.

The goal of undergraduate chemistry laboratories is to allow students to learn about chemical systems and key laboratory skills. They should then apply this knowledge to solve problems and connect macroscopic observations in the laboratory with those occurring at the submicroscopic level. Unfortunately, these needs are not met through traditional confirmation labs. Therefore, many chemistry instructors are turning towards research-based labs course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs). There are also many cases where summer workshops, often with non-traditional pedagogy, are used for students. This article describes the STEM CoLab Program, a novel type of summer workshop that seeks to build student chemistry knowledge and skills in research and presentation at the beginning of their college work. This program uses the principles of CUREs for students who are just entering the university, mostly as freshmen. Several different phenomena have been investigated during the program. In this paper, we report the overall work of the program from 2016 through 2021 and provide additional details on the program's implementation in 2020 and 2021 when students conducted their work from home, using a combination of a take home research kit for studying salivary amylase "in vitro" and computer-based visualizations of amylase-inhibitor interactions "in silico" using PyMOL and online docking tools.

Reassessing Undergraduate Polymer Chemistry Laboratory Experiments for Virtual Learning Environments.

Chemistry laboratory experiments are invaluable to students’ acquisition of necessary synthetic, analytical, and instrumental skills during their undergraduate studies. However, the COVID-19 pandemic rendered face-to-face (f2f), in-person teaching laboratory experiences impossible from late 2019–2020 and forced educators to rapidly develop new solutions to deliver chemistry laboratory education remotely. Unfortunately, achieving learning and teaching objectives to the same caliber of in-person experiments is very difficult through distance learning. To overcome these hurdles, educators have generated many virtual and remote learning options for not only foundational chemistry courses but also laboratory experiments. Although the pandemic challenged high-level chemistry education, it has also created an opportunity for both students and educators to be more cognizant of virtual learning opportunities and their potential benefits within chemistry curriculum. Irrespective of COVID-19, virtual learning techniques, especially virtual lab experiments, can complement f2f laboratories and offer a cost-efficient, safe, and environmentally sustainable alternative to their in-person counterparts. Implementation of virtual and distance learning techniques—including kitchen chemistry and at-home laboratories, prerecorded videos, live-stream video conferencing, digital lab environment, virtual and augmented reality, and others—can provide a wide-ranging venue to teach chemistry laboratories effectively and encourage diversity and inclusivity in the field. Despite their relevance to real-world applications and potential to expand upon fundamental chemical principles, polymer lab experiments are underrepresented in the virtual platform. Polymer chemistry education can help prepare students for industrial and academic positions. The impacts of polymers in our daily life can also promote students’ interests in science and scientific research. Hence, the translation of polymer lab experiments into virtual settings improves the accessibility of polymer chemistry education. Herein, we assess polymer experiments in the emergence of virtual learning environments and provide suggestions for further incorporation of effective polymer teaching and learning techniques into virtual settings.

Derivatization of Alcohols Using (bmim)HSO<SUB>4</SUB>: A Green Approach for the Undergraduate Chemistry Laboratory

Derivatization of Alcohols Using (bmim)HSO<SUB>4</SUB>: A Green Approach for the Undergraduate Chemistry Laboratory

An Undergraduate Chemistry Lab Exploring Computational Cost and Accuracy: Methane Combustion Energy

An Undergraduate Chemistry Lab Exploring Computational Cost and Accuracy: Methane Combustion Energy

Design and Delivery of a Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) Program in a UK University: Experiences and Perspectives

The value of postgraduates teaching in undergraduate chemistry laboratories has been a subject of interest at universities in the UK, Europe, USA, Australia, and New Zealand. The role of the teaching assistant (TA) is already well-established in many laboratories in the USA, and such roles have been increasing in popularity in the UK. Postgraduate (PG) demonstrators are however commonplace in UK higher education institutions (HEIs). Despite this, reports of formalized postgraduate programs involving a significant teaching component in the UK are rare. Here, we report on the first example of a Chemistry UK Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) program that started at The University of Sheffield in 2010. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first program reported of its type in the UK. For over 10 years, this program has resulted in a cohort of 24 GTAs who work alongside PG demonstrators in the laboratory and graduate with not only a chemistry Ph.D. but also enhanced teaching experience and professional development. Students in the GTA program have taken on a number of valuable roles, which are described herein. Positive outcomes include development of employability skills, contribution to the consistency of teaching, and knowledge transfer through involvement in training other PG demonstrators. The standard and consistency of the efforts of the GTA cohort have been demonstrated by a significant number receiving recognition for their teaching by gaining Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) accreditation, which is often associated with academic staff who are involved in teaching.

Qualifying domains of student struggle in undergraduate general chemistry laboratory

Learning and learning goals in undergraduate chemistry laboratory have been a popular research topic for the past three decades due to calls for curriculum reform, cost justification, and overall efficacy of necessary skill development. While much work has been done to assess curricular interventions on students’ learning and attitudes towards lab, few have discussed the increased difficulties of these non-traditional laboratory activities or the obstacles students must overcome in the laboratory setting. The work presented here focuses on student struggles in undergraduate general chemistry laboratory activities, the source of these struggles, and the actions students take to overcome them. Using an activity theoretical lens and multiple domains (cognitive, epistemological, socioemotional, and psychomotor), we developed a domains-of-struggle framework which encompasses how struggles emerge through contradictions within the laboratory activity system. This framework was extended and refined through iterative analysis of two consecutive semesters of undergraduate general chemistry laboratory (GC1 and GC2) video (n = 51), survey (n = 327), and interview (n = 44) data. In this paper, we model the activity system of the general chemistry laboratory, define the domains of struggle observed, and present actions the students took to move past these obstacles, while illustrating the interconnected complexity of the activity system. We then discuss how this framework may be used in future curriculum design or teacher training, as well as potential for future research on the learning outcomes associated with moments of struggle.

Exploring the role of scaffolds in problem-based learning (PBL) in an undergraduate chemistry laboratory

The need for shifting the expository laboratory instruction style to inquiry-based approaches is widely acknowledged. Problem-based learning (PBL), one of the inquiry-based approaches, advocates students’ self-directed learning. The literature indicates that scaffolding students’ independent learning is necessary for a PBL environment. In our study, we provided scaffolds such as a precursor task, reading material, and structured group discussion to facilitate the planning of a PBL task on indigo dyeing wastewater treatment. In this paper, we describe how these three scaffolds integrated within the PBL style contributed to students’ learning as per the stages of Kolb's Experiential Learning Cycle (ELC). We analyzed the level of the abstract conceptualization stage of ELC through students’ experimental designs (EDs) of the PBL task. The results of the qualitative analysis of the scaffolded and un-scaffolded groups suggest that scaffolded students’ experimental design scores are higher. The qualitative results indicate that the structured group discussion influences the EDs planned by students more than the precursor task and the reading material. All three scaffolds help in the reflective learning and planning of executable EDs for a PBL task. The study indicates that students transitioning into the inquiry laboratory benefit from the inclusion of scaffolding.

Results and Discussion on the Solvato/Thermochromic Behavior of [Ni(Me<sub>3</sub>en)(acac)]BPh<sub>4</sub> Complex: The Results and Discussion on the Part of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry Experiment of “The 10th National Undergraduate Chemistry Laboratory Tournament”

Results and Discussion on the Solvato/Thermochromic Behavior of [Ni(Me<sub>3</sub>en)(acac)]BPh<sub>4</sub> Complex: The Results and Discussion on the Part of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry Experiment of “The 10th National Undergraduate Chemistry Laboratory Tournament”

Results and Discussion on the Synthesis and Analysis of [Ni(Me<sub>3</sub>en)(acac)]BPh<sub>4</sub> Complex: The Results and Discussion of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry Experiment of the 10th National Undergraduate Chemistry Laboratory Tournament

Results and Discussion on the Synthesis and Analysis of [Ni(Me<sub>3</sub>en)(acac)]BPh<sub>4</sub> Complex: The Results and Discussion of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry Experiment of the 10th National Undergraduate Chemistry Laboratory Tournament

Synthesis and Characterization of Acetaminophen: An Experimental and Theoretical Laboratory for the Undergraduate Curriculum

Computational chemistry techniques are used along with spectroscopy to characterize acetaminophen synthesized in an undergraduate chemistry laboratory experiment. The inclusion of electronic structure calculations to provide infrared and Raman spectra in the synthesis and characterization of acetaminophen connects over-the-counter medications with which students are familiar to the experience of producing and characterizing a compound, and the growing role of computational chemistry in the chemical enterprise. The visualization of molecular motions associate with the absorption frequencies enhanced the understanding of the spectroscopic techniques.

An Exploration of Perceptions of Justice in a Career-Forward Undergraduate Chemistry Laboratory Course

An Exploration of Perceptions of Justice in a Career-Forward Undergraduate Chemistry Laboratory Course

Using Guiding Questions to Promote Scientific Practices in Undergraduate Chemistry Laboratories

Using Guiding Questions to Promote Scientific Practices in Undergraduate Chemistry Laboratories

Bibliometric and Descriptive Content Analyses for the Articles Related to Problem-Based Learning in Chemistry Education

The study aimed to reveal the research trends of articles related to PBL in chemistry education and to provide insights into the characteristics of the research activities through bibliometric and descriptive content analyses. For bibliometric analysis, a total of 119 articles were accessed from the Web of Science (WoS), and for descriptive content analysis, a total of 30 articles were eliminated from the “Education & Educational Research” category of WoS. In bibliometric analysis, author keywords, words in the abstracts, citation analyses, and co-citation analyses in the articles were analyzed to reveal an overall picture in the related literature. Then, a descriptive content analysis was performed to examine in detail the fields of research, variables, methods, sample groups, data collection tools, data analysis methods, and the results highlighted in the articles. The bibliometric analysis results showed that the most-used keywords were problem-solving/decision making, problem-based learning, undergraduate, inquiry-based/discovery learning, laboratory instruction, and collaborative/cooperative learning. The most used words in the abstracts of the articles were a problem, students, learning, study, course, approach, skill, and chemistry. The most cited authors were Leman Tarhan, Santiago Sandi-Urena, Melanie M. Cooper, and Todd A. Gatlin. The top two journals in the terms of the total number of articles and the most cited were “Journal of Chemical Education” and “Chemistry Education Research and Practice”. The descriptive content analysis results showed that undergraduate chemistry laboratories and chemistry courses were the main learning environments for PBL settings in chemistry education. Undergraduate students were the most frequently preferred sample. The most examined variables in the articles were academic achievement, views about PBL and attitude. Quantitative and qualitative studies were the main research focus, but there was a limited number of mixed studies. Also, interviews, achievement tests, and alternative assessment tools were widely used as data collection tools in the articles.

QR Code Labels and Audio Commentaries for Commonly Used Chemistry Laboratory Apparatus: An Assisted Learning Experience for Visually Impaired Students

An instructional technology application of QR (quick response) codes for introducing commonly used chemistry laboratory apparatus for visually impaired students is presented. Audio commentaries describing commonly used apparatus were recorded. The commentaries consisted of concise introductions and applications of various apparatus used in high school and undergraduate chemistry laboratories. The QR code for each apparatus was produced and linked to the corresponding audio commentary via a unique URL. The QR code labels were attached to the apparatus. The QR codes were scanned on a mobile device and an audio commentary was played. Sixteen visually impaired students participated in testing the activity. The results of the testing activity underscored the efficacy of the technology offering an assisted physical learning experience. Technology presented in this article does not give visually impaired students an independent learning experience, rather it gives them an assisted learning experience which enhances their sense of inclusion in a laboratory environment.

Accessible Teaching and Learning in the Undergraduate Chemistry Course and Laboratory for Blind and Low-Vision Students

Accessible Teaching and Learning in the Undergraduate Chemistry Course and Laboratory for Blind and Low-Vision Students

Integration of Interactive Laboratory Videos into Teaching Upper-Undergraduate Chemical Laboratory Techniques

Students in advanced undergraduate chemistry laboratories are required to undertake a wide range of complex and multistep syntheses and analytical procedures, and prospective employers of chemistry graduates seek students with proven skills in these areas. Our approach has been to use video resources which are made available to students both ahead of, and during, their laboratory classes to assist with preparation and provide just-in-time self-help during the laboratory. In this study we evaluate the implementation of a user-focused strategy to improve students’ laboratory skills and use a three-stage model, forethought, performance, and self-reflection, to assess the impact and effectiveness of these resources to complement the traditional laboratory teaching resources of laboratory manuals and laboratory teaching staff (demonstrators). Students demonstrated autonomous learning by engaging with the laboratory videos using both active and passive learning approaches. The benefits of our approach are especially evident for students who have English as a second language and students who identify with different learning preferences. Increased student grades and more effective staff-student supervision time requirements are evident across both third-year undergraduate chemistry courses in which these videos were implemented.

Adapting an Inquiry-Based Approach for Undergraduate Chemistry Laboratory Courses: An Exploratory Study

The exploratory study presented here is regarding the implementation of an inquiry-based instructional module developed for undergraduate chemistry laboratory courses. The study aims at understanding the challenges in execution of such a module and suggest ways for its effective implementation. It is important to bring changes in the present conventional practices to develop students as independent investigators and for learning experiences that are inquiry-driven, discussion-based and flexible as recommended by the NEP 2020. Based on this study, we suggest that the transition to inquiry approaches should be gradual. Further, students need adequate scaffolding of the learning process to help them in such a transition

Examining the production of some bands of the electromagnetic spectrum using KCl

An experimental activity for teaching the origin of some bands of the electromagnetic spectrum using only one substance is presented. The activity is proposed for undergraduate students and focuses on developing their knowledge on the origin and the specific requirements for excitation and detection of three bands of the electromagnetic spectrum, in a comparative way. In this teaching approach, gamma rays from spontaneous emission of 40K, x-rays and visible radiation emission after appropriate excitation of KCl, is detected using instruments that can be found in an undergraduate physics and chemistry laboratory. The activity which combines demonstration and student engagement is described and the results related to the examination of each band are discussed.

Modernizing the Analytical Chemistry Laboratory: The Design and Implementation of a Modular Protein-Centered Course

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) integrate authentic research into undergraduate chemistry laboratories, introducing students to research while simultaneously reinforcing fundamental concepts. Despite their ubiquitous nature in bioanalytical research, few CUREs have been published applying the fundamental techniques of separations, spectroscopy, quantification, and mass spectrometry. To engage students in learning these increasingly essential bioanalytical techniques, we designed and implemented a semester-long project-based course centered around the purification, quantification, and identification of heterologously expressed proteins in five succinct and adaptable modules. Instructors can use these modules to form the foundation of a CURE specific to their research interests. The extensive commercial availability of plasmids for transformation combined with the modular approach to laboratory experiments enables convenient customization to accommodate diverse research goals. Instructors can tailor the modules to meet the curricular requirements and instrumentation capabilities of their institutions and can easily extend the research goals to incorporate more specialized analytical techniques, as needed. Through the implementation of the five modules, students apply the fundaments of acid–base chemistry, statistics, quantification strategies, spectrophotometry, separations, and mass spectrometry, thus covering the material required in most undergraduate introductory analytical courses. Instructors can then use these modules as a backbone to support student-led discovery-based investigations for the remainder of the course. Students demonstrate their understanding through the completion of a comprehensive, publication-style laboratory report as well as a poster presentation at a university-wide undergraduate research symposium. Since first offering this course in 2016, student evaluations have been exceedingly positive, with over 75% of students indicating that the course both increased their scientific skills as well as their confidence in their ability to succeed in further science courses. Furthermore, 22% of students reported they were “much more” or “extremely more” likely to enroll in a Ph.D. program in science, math, or engineering following the courses, emphasizing the impact that project-based laboratories can have on undergraduate chemists’ career trajectories.