In this guided-inquiry lesson, students were tasked with determining the efficacy of an at-home drinking water filter at removing lead (Pb) from tap water using graphite furnace atomic absorption spectroscopy by determining the concentration of lead before and after filtration. The lesson was structured to allow students to choose and perform…

Metamodeling ideas move beyond using a model to solve a problem to consider the nature and purpose of a model, such as reasoning about a model's empirical basis and understanding why and how a model might change or be replaced. Given that chemistry relies heavily on the use of models to describe particulate-level phenomena, developing…

This modular, open-framework capstone course delves deeply into the synthesis, separation, and characterization of chiral molecules while teaching critical thinking and writing skills in a research-like setting within a fertile area for discovery. This course has evolved over 30 years and has been in its present form for 5 years at the time of…

The Periodic Table of the Elements (PTE) is arguably one of the most central topics in chemistry. This article provides a critical review of current teaching practices of the PTE to high-school students and undergraduate university students. It also provides a new teaching model, the "periodic universe", for understanding of the PTE…

Describes the application of the Piaget-based learning cycle technique for teaching an introductory organic chemistry course. Explains the step-by-step process used to convert a lecture course into a discussion-based active learning course. A learning cycle provides students with concrete material and aids them in understanding abstract concepts…