A laboratory experiment has been designed for teaching laboratories aimed at training students in the basics of spectroscopy in junior and senior level undergraduate chemistry courses. Despite the ubiquity of light-based tools in modern science, students often find it difficult to comprehend light and light-matter interactions. A portable…

Lidar remote sensing, which uses laser pulses to measure three-dimensional structure, has become essential across natural science disciplines. However, undergraduate students typically receive limited, if any, exposure to this technology and rarely have opportunities to experience it. Experiential and multi-modal courses may be ideal for…

A new experiment using laser ablation with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) was designed for chemistry undergraduate students. While most analytical methods only provide information on the amount of the analyte, LA-ICP-MS allows extra information on the distribution of the element in the sample. Because it achieves…

Raman scattering spectroscopies are important analytical tools in modern chemistry. Here, we describe the construction of the unamplified Raman scattering analysis (URSA) instrument: an inexpensive, open-table Raman spectrometer that uses a 532 nm diode-pumped laser as a light source. Upon application of this spectrometer to DNA extracted from…

Raman scattering is a powerful tool for revealing the vibrations of molecules, but as a nonlinear optical phenomenon, its signals can change via mechanisms like resonance enhancement that have no direct analogue in infrared spectroscopy. In this work, complementary measurements conducted on 4-nitrophenol and its conjugate base allow students to…

In this article, the author presents a Desmos activity where students adjust the measures of angles in radians to reposition a laser and a mirror so the beam passes through three stationary targets. This Radian Lasers activity can be extended to simulate project-based learning (PBL), a pedagogical approach for applying concepts and skills from…

This article describes a simple way to introduce nanomaterials using the presence of carbon nanodots (CNDs) in widely available food. Budweiser® beer and Coca-Cola®, commercial foods that are commonly accessible, were utilized to demonstrate the optical property of nanoparticles. Specifically, green and violet laser pointers were employed for the…

A popular physics legend holds that scissors can cut paper with a speed faster than light. Here this counter-intuitive myth is investigated theoretically using four simple examples of scissors. For simplicity, all cases will involve a static lower scissors blade that remains horizontal just under the paper. In the first case, the upper blade will…

In Japan, research activities by junior and senior high school students show an upward trend. However, there are limited examples of research activities in the field of elementary particles and atoms. This is due to the difficulty associated with procuring research tools such as accelerators or particle detectors. Therefore, we hosted the 'Accel…

The Arduino board and its communication with several sensors are becoming more and more popular in the physical science community. They offer inspiring possibilities for learning different physical concepts. In this article, we focused on creating a very practical educational system for experimenting with diffraction of laser light and graphically…

A low-cost time-resolved emission spectrometer optimized for ruby emission is presented. The use of a Class II diode laser module as the excitation source reduces costs and hazards. The design presented here can facilitate the inclusion of time-resolved emission spectroscopy with laser excitation sources in the undergraduate laboratory curriculum.…

We have developed a laboratory project in which students prepare liposomes, expose them to hyperosmotic and hypoosmotic solutions, and follow the resulting shrinking and swelling (respectively) with laser light scattering. Each light intensity transient can be fit to an exponential decline or rise, with the decay constant (k) and the amplitude…

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) and principal component analysis (PCA) are frequently used for analytical purposes in research and industry, but they seldom are part of the chemistry curriculum or laboratory exercises. This case study paper describes the combined application of LIBS and PCA during a research internship for an…

This paper presents an argumentation-based demonstration experiment to teach the light-matter interaction using an observable laser beam and vacuum pump. In the experiment, the concept of darkness was addressed using a virtual space environment created by gradually decreasing the pressure inside a quartz glass bell jar with a vacuum pump. This…

This paper describes the use of a tabletop electron microscope in teaching college level physics. The workings and use of an electron microscope encompass many aspects of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). A sequence of activities was constructed to compliment the instructional material in the physics course of the University…