This work is part of a larger project that seeks to understand how students blend (integrate) chemistry and mathematics as they work through chemical kinetics problems.Here we focus on four students from our larger sample: two students that demonstrated more instances of blending chemistry and mathematics in their interviews ("high-frequency blenders") and two students that did not have any instances of blending chemistry and mathematics in their interviews ("nonblenders"). In this study, we characterized the intuitive mathematical ideas the students associated with equations (symbolic forms) and graphs (graphical forms), focusing on how the students' mathematical reasoning influenced their understanding of chemical phenomena. The findings suggest that, in order for students to integrate chemistry and mathematics in a way that supports their understanding of the chemical processes in chemical kinetics, they must be able to reason using symbolic and graphical forms.

Previous work has shown a misalignment between the goals of faculty and students for laboratory coursework. Although faculty often list learning techniques and developing critical thinking skills as goals for laboratory, students tend to focus on affective goals, such as finishing lab early and obtaining good grades. The goals of faculty have been thoroughly investigated through both qualitative and large-scale quantitative studies. However, studies on student goals for laboratory coursework have primarily been conducted using qualitative methods. In order to provide a more comprehensive idea of students' goals in the laboratory, we have designed a brief, online survey. The survey was used to investigate students' goals in the laboratory and build on existing literature by including survey questions that catalog how students plan on achieving their goals. In this study, we discuss results about students' goals and achievement strategies at the beginning of the semester and after completing the laboratory portion of the course. Anonymous responses, via the online survey, were collected from undergraduate students enrolled in chemistry courses at two Midwestern universities. These results are intended to inform the discussion among faculty regarding how to change laboratory coursework and the instruction to better align faculty and student goals.

Previous work on chemistry outreach has mainly focused on designing and implementing demonstrations for outreach. Recent studies indicate student organizations are at the forefront of chemistry outreach and described their outreach practices and conceptual understanding of demonstrations. However, more research is needed regarding the experiences of facilitators leading outreach events to understand their motivation, what they are gaining from participating, how they are contributing to the community, etc. By providing this information, we can give more structure to outreach initiatives as an informal learning environment. This work is part of a larger study that explores the relationship between leadership in student organizations and chemistry outreach events. Here, we present how diversity plays a role in chemistry outreach, as informed by interviews involving nine graduate students who actively participated in outreach. Communities of practice (CoP) has been used as a framework to describe learning environments and student organizations participating in outreach can be thought of as a CoP. The findings suggest diversity and inclusion influence boundary processes of the student organization as a CoP. Specifically, students’ prior experiences related to gender, race/ethnicity, education and other outreach events play a role in their purpose for doing chemistry outreach, how they contribute to planning of events and how they interact with the audience of outreach events.