Many studies suggest that students have difficulties in learning acid-base concepts. This study presents some conflicts in the textbook descriptions of these concepts and proposes these to be the cause of the students' difficulties. This is especially true regarding the description of the relationship among the Arrhenius, Brønsted-Lowry, and Lewis…

Density functional theory (DFT) is a type of electronic structure calculation that has rapidly gained popularity. In this article, we provide a step-by-step demonstration of a DFT calculation by hand on the helium atom using Slater's X-Alpha exchange functional on a single Gaussian-type orbital to represent the atomic wave function. This DFT…

Oscillating chemical reactions are truly spectacular phenomena, and demonstrations are always appreciated by the class. However, explaining such reactions to high school or first-year university students is problematic, because it may seem that no acceptable explanation is possible unless the students have profound knowledge of both physical…

This article describes an exploration into improving the process and the outcome of learning in interactive teaching at the first-year university physics level, using what is becoming widely known as the "variation approach to learning." To explore this approach we chose an area of mechanics that is widely known to pose learning…

The need for a borderless learning experience is apparent for many subjects, but is particularly important for the science major. We are living in an era when a strand of hair or piece of gum can identify a criminal, and the blueprint of our genes has been mapped out completely. Continuing to educate students merely in the "how to" of…