A 10 week project in the organic chemistry laboratory provided the opportunity to require students to write four drafts of an introduction. Student understanding of what a good introduction entails was transformed by their fourth draft, as evidenced by higher citation counts and the inclusion of more and better figures, which reveals greater…

This article demonstrates how a student research project could connect classroom and community. Using local citizens' concerns about the adulteration of cosmetics by prohibited substances as a research problem, fifth-year pharmaceutical chemistry students were challenged to use their knowledge to create cost-effective and environmentally friendly…