Like many other universities, Musical Acoustics is offered at our school as a lab-based course fulfilling general science requirements for non-majors. The course has been team-taught by a physics professor and music professor since its earliest inception and, by far, the most popular unit explores room acoustics through a variety of activities and…

Kombucha, a popular probiotic beverage, contains detectable concentrations of ethyl alcohol. To be sold as a nonalcoholic product, alcohol concentrations in kombucha must be shown to be less than 0.5% by volume. This paper describes the use of an inexpensive, commercially available sensor to reliably and accurately measure alcohol concentrations…

Wetlands are defined as areas of soil saturated with standing water. These areas are rich in biodiversity, containing numerous plants, animals and microorganisms. Wetlands act as natural filtering systems for runoff and can improve the water quality in an area. To demonstrate the importance of wetlands to a nonscience major introductory…

An integrated lab-lecture project, known as the mini research project, was developed for a medicinal chemistry course for nonscience majors. In the lecture component of this project, students choose a plant essential oil with documented biological activity and prepare a literature review describing the importance, history, and current use of the…

Examination of photographic processes from the 19th century to the present digital age is an effective means to intellectually engage nonscience majors with science. A laboratory course for nonscience majors exploring these processes is described in this article. Ionic and covalent compounds, oxidation-reduction reactions, precipitation reactions,…

Quantitative [superscript 13]C NMR provides a straightforward method of analyzing edible oils in undergraduate chemistry laboratories. [superscript 13]C spectra are relatively easy to understand, and are much simpler to analyze and workup than corresponding [superscript 1]H spectra. Average chain length, degree of saturation, and average…

A laboratory experiment is described for beginning, nonmajor chemistry students, which allows students to examine the phenomena of fluorescence and chemiluminescence, as well as gain experience in basic organic synthesis. Students synthesize fluorescein and bis(2,4,6-trichlorophenyl) oxalate (TCPO) to explore fluorescence and chemiluminescence by…

"Drug Discovery" is a 13-week lecture and laboratory-based course that was developed to introduce non-science majors to foundational chemistry and biochemistry concepts as they relate to the unifying theme of drug discovery. The first part of this course strives to build students' understanding of molecules, their properties, the…

Sustainable energy is growing in importance as the public becomes more aware of climate change and the need to satisfy our society's energy demands while minimizing environmental impacts. To further this awareness and to better prepare a workforce for "green careers," we developed a sustainable energy laboratory course that is suitable…

Presented is a guided inquiry activity designed to be conducted with prenursing students using an analogous system to help develop a conceptual understanding of factors impacting enzyme kinetics and the various types of enzyme inhibition. Pre- and postconceptual understanding evaluations and effectiveness of implementation surveys were given to…

Laboratory-based courses require students to compose reports based on the performed experiments to assess their overall understanding of the presented material; unfortunately, the sterile and formulated nature of the laboratory report disinterests most students. As a result, the outcome is a lower-quality product that does not reveal full…

Several years ago, a new nonscience majors course, The Science of Food and Cooking, was developed at our institution. The course covered basic scientific concepts that would normally be discussed in a typical introductory chemistry course, in the context of food and food preparation. Recently, the course has been revamped in three major ways: (1)…

Nonscience majors often believe that the concepts and techniques in chemistry have little relevance to someone outside the "ivy-covered walls of academia". The challenge for science instructors is to develop and implement lessons that present science in a way that will capture the interest of the nonscience major, while remaining rigorous enough…

The physical science curriculum design at Georgia Gwinnett College requires a theme-based course (lecture and group work, and laboratory) for nonscience majors. Increased student engagement is anticipated when science topics are taught in the context of a topic of which students can select during course registration. This paper presents the course…

"The Chemistry of Perfume" is a lab-only course for nonscience majors. Students learn fundamental concepts of chemistry through the context of fragrance, a pervasive aspect of daily life. The course consists of laboratories pertaining to five units: introduction, extraction, synthesis, characterization, and application. The introduction unit…