In this organic chemistry laboratory experiment, students are guided through a series of exercises to understand the behavior of compounds during liquid-liquid extraction. Aspects of density, structure, solubility, acid-base theory, and pK[subscript a] are all incorporated into activities that students complete in groups. After using their initial…

We report a school project which equips students with both theoretical and practical knowledge in material physics. We construct dumpling skins from a mixture of flour and water. A series of experiments is then conducted to quantify the toughness, hardness, and tensile strength of the skins, and how they are affected by adding other materials into…

Attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy is a useful technique for measuring the infrared spectra of solids and liquids as well as probing adsorption on particle surfaces. The use of FTIR-ATR spectroscopy in organic and inorganic chemistry laboratory courses as well as in undergraduate research was presented…

It is shown how the same physically appealing method can be applied to find analytic solutions for two difficult and apparently unrelated problems in optics and electrostatics. They are: (i) the diffraction of a plane wave at a perfectly conducting thin half-plane and (ii) the electrostatic field associated with a parallel array of stripes held at…

This laboratory experiment was designed to demonstrate the application of immobilized galactosidase in food industry to hydrolyze raffinose family oligosaccharides in soymilk. This laboratory experiment was conducted for postgraduate students of biochemistry and developed for graduate and undergraduate students of biochemistry, biotechnology,…

Mass spectrometry is a widely used and versatile tool for scientists in many different fields. Soft ionization techniques such as matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) allow for the analysis of biomolecules, polymers, and clusters. This article describes a MALDI mass spectrometry experiment designed for students in introductory…

A computational experiment is described for the organic chemistry laboratory that allows students to estimate the relative strengths of the intramolecular hydrogen bonds of usnic and isousnic acids, two related lichen secondary metabolites. Students first extract and purify usnic acid from common lichens and obtain [superscript 1]H NMR and IR…

We present an alternative to a traditional first-year chemistry laboratory experiment. This experiment has four key features: students utilize stoichiometry, learn and apply principles of green chemistry, engage in authentic scientific inquiry, and discover why each part of a scientific lab report is necessary. The importance and essential…

Current reform documents place a strong emphasis on students' understandings of the nature of science (NOS). Interestingly, the importance of this educational outcome is not new and has been agreed upon as important by most scientists and science educators for the past 100 years. Despite numerous attempts, including the major curricular reform…