More Like this

1. A Guided-Inquiry Activity for Introducing Students to Figures from Primary Scientific Literature

   https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.2c00605  

   Maxwell, Danielle N.; Spencer, Jeffrey L.; Teich, Ethan A.; Cooke, Madeline; Fromwiller, Braeden; Peterson, Nathan; Nicholas-Figueroa, Linda; Shultz, Ginger V.; Pratt, Kerri A. (May 2023, Journal of Chemical Education)

   Holme, Thomas (Ed.)

   Reading and understanding scientific literature is an essential skill for any scientist to learn. While students’ scientific literacy can be improved by reading research articles, an article’s technical language and structure can hinder students’ understanding of the scientific material. Furthermore, many students struggle with interpreting graphs and other models of data commonly found in scientific literature. To introduce students to scientific literature and promote improved understanding of data and graphs, we developed a guided-inquiry activity adapted from a research article on snow chemistry and implemented it in a general chemistry laboratory course. Here, we describe how we adapted figures from the primary literature source and developed questions to scaffold the guided-inquiry activity. Results from semi-structured qualitative interviews suggest that students learn about snow chemistry processes and engage in scientific practices, including data analysis and interpretation, through this activity. This activity is applicable in other introductory science courses as educators can adapt most scientific articles into a guided-inquiry activity. 

   more » « less
2. A gut microbiome tactile teaching tool and guided-inquiry activity promotes student learning

   https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2022.966289  

   Shoaf, Parker T.; French, Katie S.; Clifford, Noah J.; McKenney, Erin A.; Ott, Laura E. (December 2022, Frontiers in Microbiology)

   Davida Smyth (Ed.)

   The gut microbiome and its physiological impacts on human and animal health is an area of research emphasis. Microbes themselves are invisible and may therefore be abstract and challenging to understand. It is therefore important to infuse this topic into undergraduate curricula, including Anatomy and Physiology courses, ideally through an active learning approach. To accomplish this, we developed a novel tactile teaching tool with guided-inquiry (TTT-GI) activity where students explored how the gut microbiome ferments carbohydrates to produce short chain fatty acids (SCFAs). This activity was implemented in two sections of a large-enrollment Human Anatomy and Physiology course at a research intensive (R1) university in the Spring of 2022 that was taught using a hyflex format. Students who attended class in person used commonly available building toys to assemble representative carbohydrates of varying structural complexity, whereas students who attended class virtually made these carbohydrate structures using a digital learning tool. Students then predicted how microbes within the gut would ferment different carbohydrates into SCFAs, as well as the physiological implications of the SCFAs. We assessed this activity to address three research questions, with 182 students comprising our sample. First, we evaluated if the activity learning objectives were achieved through implementation of a pre-and post-assessment schema. Our results revealed that all three learning objectives of this activity were attained. Next, we evaluated if the format in which this TTT-GI activity was implemented impacted student learning. While we found minimal and nonsignificant differences in student learning between those who attended in-person and those who attended remotely, we did find significant differences between the two course sections, which differed in length and spacing of the activity. Finally, we evaluated if this TTT-GI approach was impactful for diverse students. We observed modest and nonsignificant positive learning gains for some populations of students traditionally underrepresented in STEM (first-generation students and students with one or more disabilities). That said, we found that the greatest learning gains associated with this TTT-GI activity were observed in students who had taken previous upper-level biology coursework. 

   more » « less
3. Using Innovative Methods to Explore the Potential of an Alerting Dashboard for Science Inquiry.

   https://doi.org/10.18608/jla.2021.7153  

   Dickler, R. (September 2021, Journal of learning analytics)

   Educational technologies, such as teacher dashboards, are being developed to support teachers’ instruction and students’ learning. Specifically, dashboards support teachers in providing the just-in-time instruction needed by students in complex contexts such as science inquiry. In this study, we used the Inq-Blotter teacher-alerting dashboard to investigate whether teacher support elicited by the technology influenced students’ inquiry performance in a science intelligent tutoring system, Inq-ITS. Results indicated that students’ inquiry improved after receiving teachers’ help, elicited by the Inq-Blotter alerts. This inquiry improvement was significantly greater than for matched students who did not receive help from the teacher in response to alerts. Epistemic network analyses were then used to investigate the patterns in the discursive supports provided to students by teachers. These analyses revealed significant differences in the types of support that fostered (versus did not foster) student improvement; differences across teachers were also found. Overall, this study used innovative tools and analyses to understand how teachers use this technological genre of alerting dashboards to dynamically support students in science inquiry. 

   more » « less
4. Saccharide Transfer to Sea Spray Aerosol Enhanced by Surface Activity, Calcium, and Protein Interactions

   https://doi.org/10.1021/acsearthspacechem.9b00197  

   Hasenecz, Elias S.; Kaluarachchi, Chathuri P.; Lee, Hansol D.; Tivanski, Alexei V.; Stone, Elizabeth A. (October 2019, ACS Earth and Space Chemistry)
5. Discovering Isomerism: A Guided-Inquiry Computational Exercise for Undergraduate Organic Chemistry

   Sharma, Arun K.; DeCicco, Racquel C. (March 2018, The chemical educator)

   null (Ed.)

   This paper provides a guided-inquiry exercise designed to help sophomore level undergraduate students discover isomerism in the organic chemistry curriculum. The activity teaches students to use Gaussian and GaussView software packages to create molecules and setup calculations to explore chemical properties. The students, unknown to them, create cis- and trans- isomers of simple molecules and analyze their potential energies and nuclear repulsion energies. The class uses this information to discover the stability of trans-isomers relative to cis-isomers. This provides students with a clearer understanding of the impact of nuclear repulsions on the final geometry of the molecule. Student assessment of the activity has been highly positive and points to the need for regular integration of such assignments into the Organic Chemistry curriculum. 

   more » « less