Poinsettia ("Euphorbia pulcherrima") contains anthocyanins that dissolve in water and exhibit color changes due to changing pH. This property makes the poinsettia extract a useful acid-base indicator for pH demonstrations. When combined with common household materials, this experiment can be used as an alternative low-cost tool in…

As electrochemistry continues to gain broader acceptance and use within the organic chemistry community, it is important that advanced undergraduate students are exposed to fundamental and practical knowledge of electrochemical applications for chemical synthesis. Herein, we describe the development of an undergraduate laboratory experience that…

A knowledge of ionisation energies helps us understand the elements and their chemistry. The usual plots of first ionisation energies give us little insight. Apparent irregularity of first and second ionisation energies of transition metals and lanthanides can be explained in terms of the electronic configurations of the ground states. Periodicity…

Project-based learning is widely used in organic laboratories. This goal-oriented and inquiry-based learning model complements student-centered training. Such models focus on complicated issues or real-world problems on the frontier of chemistry. Students progress through three project phases: preproject, during the project, and postproject.…

Resonance is a foundational organic chemistry concept, but it is consistently misunderstood by undergraduate students. The development of a concept inventory--a multiple-choice assessment where the incorrect answer choices stem from commonly held alternate conceptions--on the concept of resonance could help organic chemistry instructors quickly…

A lateral flow assay was designed and optimized as an independent study project that aimed to develop an assay for the qualitative detection of troponin assay. Lateral flow assays (the classic example being a pregnancy test) have the advantage of being rapid, specific, and user-friendly. They are composed of an absorbent pad, a nitrocellulose…

An activity of using waste plastic caps and wooden sticks (or steel wires) to construct crystal structures is described. Caps with different colors represent different atoms/ions/interstices, and sticks are employed to carry the caps and describe the positions of atoms/ions/interstices. The cap-and-stick model clearly demonstrates crystal…

Vibrational fine structure observed in the published He-I UV photoelectron spectra of H[subscript 2] and N[subscript 2] molecules recorded at room temperature and under microwave excitation or at 700 °C have been reexamined and compared with calculations of the Franck-Condon factors (FCFs) using simple harmonic oscillator wave functions and/or…

The UV--vis absorption of cyanine dyes is a common experiment in many physical chemistry teaching laboratories. As part of the analysis, students are often asked to hypothesize why the predicted absorption differs from the measured values and why dyes which are predicted to have the same absorption have measured values which differ from each…

In school chemistry, the oxyhydrogen or "Knallgas" reaction is used to provide evidence of hydrogen gas in the squeaky pop test. However, the test actually indicates the presence of an explosive gas mixture of hydrogen and oxygen (oxyhydrogen gas) rather than pure hydrogen. The sheer observations of an explosive reaction and the…

Research has shown that the use of practical examples in undergraduate education promotes the retention of historically underrepresented students in STEM majors and lowers achievement gaps within courses. Since many students of color and women aspire toward careers in healthcare and the pharmaceutical industry, efforts to incorporate medicinal…

A virtual Game-Based Tournament of Chemistry was developed as an alternative to the traditional problem-solving classes to aid students in reviewing and understanding organic acidity and basicity concepts. The tournament was based on a multilingual virtual board game (English, Portuguese, French, and Italian) which aimed to facilitate students'…

A national survey on chemistry instructional laboratories was administered to faculty members at four-year postsecondary institutions in the United States for the purpose of exploring levels of inquiry-based instruction implemented in laboratory courses. Respondents were asked to rate the level of choice their students had in deciding six key…

Understanding reaction mechanisms is integral to success in organic chemistry; however, prior research suggests that learners struggle with recognizing the importance of underlying implicit features in reaction mechanisms. Because of this struggle, understanding how learners' reason about reaction mechanisms and developing assessments to elicit…

This paper describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of an inquiry-based laboratory for sophomore-level organic chemistry into a mostly cookbook, existing laboratory curriculum. For the laboratory, students were required to generate their own procedures and use their own recorded data from prior laboratory assignments to identify an…