This study focuses on designing a laboratory learning program for a high school chemistry course in which students could discover the fundamental principles of Hess's law via stepwise inquiry. By exploring the chemical properties of common desiccants, mainly those that were reactive in water, students were introduced to the exothermic reaction of…

Thomas Graham discovered the law that bears his name while studying gas diffusion into air and other gases. He also found that the same relationship held with gas effusion, the movement of gases through a pinhole into a vacuum. Modern understanding of diffusion and effusion is based on kinetic-molecular theory, and it is generally accepted that…

The main purpose of this study is to explore the epistemological problems underlying pre-service chemistry teachers' aims in using practical work, "i.e.," individual or small group object manipulation or observation, in school science. Twenty-two pre-service chemistry teachers participated in this study. Qualitative data collection tools…

A guided inquiry-based experiment exploring the regioselectivity of the hydration of phenylacetylene is described. The experiment uses an acidic gold(III) catalyst in a benign methanol/water solvent system to introduce students to alkyne chemistry and key principles of green chemistry. The experiment can be easily completed in approximately 2 h,…

Service-learning (SL) is an active learning approach that connects the knowledge a student acquires in the classroom to an application that benefits the community. Increasingly popular in the chemistry curriculum, service-learning is reported to provide student benefits including improved cognitive goals; increased academic, interpersonal, and…

The Polymers and Cross-Linking experiment is presented via a new three phase learning cycle: CORE (Chemical Observations, Representations, Experimentation), which is designed to model productive chemical inquiry and to promote a deeper understanding about the chemistry operating at the submicroscopic level. The experiment is built on two familiar…

Introducing Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (NST) topics into school science curricula is considered useful for an in-depth understanding of the content, processes and nature of science and technology, and also for negotiating the social aspects of science. This study examines (a) the development of an inquiry-based Teaching-Learning Sequence (TLS)…

A project-based biophysical chemistry laboratory course, which is offered to the biochemistry and molecular biology majors in their senior year, is described. In this course, the classroom study of the structure-function of biomolecules is integrated with the discovery-guided laboratory study of these molecules using computer modeling and…

A hands-on activity based on general electrochemistry concepts with the aim at introducing design science elements is presented. The main goals of the activity are to reinforce electrochemical principles while fostering innovation in the students through the assembly and optimization of a voltaic device and subsequent evaluation by powering…

The challenge in chemistry courses for nonscience majors (such as nursing majors) is not that the students cannot learn chemistry but that they "think" they cannot learn chemistry. With this in mind, the authors' goal was to create a learning environment in which students would feel motivated to learn and would gain confidence in their…

Symmetry properties of molecules are generally introduced in second-year or third-year-level inorganic or physical chemistry courses. Students generally adapt readily to understanding and applying the operations of rotation (C[subscript n]), reflection (s), and inversion (i). However, the two-step operation of improper rotation-reflection…

A simplified activity examined gas density while employing cost-efficient syringes in place of traditional glass bulbs. The exercise measured the density of methane, with very good accuracy and precision, in both first-year high school and AP chemistry settings. The participating students were tasked with finding the density of a gas. The…

This study examined the effectiveness of Argument-Driven Inquiry (ADI) as an instructional model in a general chemistry laboratory course. The study was conducted over the course of ten experimental sessions with 125 pre-service science teachers. The participants' level of reflective thinking about the ADI activities, changes in their science…

In any demonstration to students, producing light and sound usually ensures interest and can enhance understanding and retention of the concepts involved. A guided inquiry (Predict, Observe, Explain: POE) approach was used to involve the students actively in their learning about the explosive combustion of fine flour particles in air in the…

Learning how the periodic table has developed over time can provide an important foundation for students' future science learning, as they begin to explore the explanatory power of other models in science. In this activity, students are given the opportunity to investigate the generation of the modern periodic table, through a process of creating…