Plant extracts and their components have been reported to have antimicrobial properties against phytopathogens. Although such properties could be harnessed for the development of new pathogen control strategies, there are no standardised methods for their assessment in different extracts. The laboratory exercise presented here involves the use of…

A renewed experimental procedure for the unknown carbonyl experiment has been developed using hydrazone synthesis, thin layer chromatography (TLC) analysis, and melting point determination to differentiate between structurally similar ketones and aldehydes in undergraduate organic chemistry practical courses. Benzaldehyde, p-tolualdehyde,…

A multicomponent reaction was adapted and successfully applied in the major organic course, which involves synthesizing and characterizing a 1,3-benzoxazine derived from paracetamol extracted from tablets of the worldwide well-known medicine Tylenol. Using paracetamol as a reagent is a motivational strategy in undergraduate laboratories to meet…

This article details the outcome of a joint reflective approach undertaken by the authors to identify common difficulties experienced by 2nd-year undergraduate Biochemistry students in laboratory classes. Difficulties experienced in laboratories can affect the development of hand skills, an understanding of how to correctly operate laboratory…

Here, a relatively simple laboratory experiment of a physical pendulum, suitable for students of science and engineering in the first courses of university physics, is presented to illustrate its dynamic behavior and to determine its inertia moment. To this end, a long wooden rod of length L = 99.8 cm and cross-section radius R = 1.73 cm was used…

While elimination reactions are ubiquitous in organic chemistry textbooks, their implementation in undergraduate laboratories still suffers from a lack of reliable and easy setup procedures. This paper describes an easy-to-implement set of elimination experiments in the pentanol and bromopentane series using a modified Hickman distillation head.…

In this laboratory experiment, a guided inquiry exploring the physicochemical principles of the dissolution of Ca(OH)[subscript 2](s) in water is proposed for laboratory classes in university and high school. As part of students' inquiry, two experimental approaches are used. One is the change in solubility with temperature revealed by measuring…

The particle-in-a-box experiment is a well-known method used to teach quantum mechanics concepts in physical chemistry laboratories for undergraduates. The investigation involves measuring the wavelength at maximum absorbance ([lambda subscript max]) of electronic transitions in the UV-vis spectrum and linking it to the box length. As the…

Undergraduate students of a molecular cell biology laboratory class learn basic recombinant DNA (rDNA) technology by engaging in a Genomic Library Construction Project. Significantly, in this lab project students learn experimental design strategy. The challenge for students is to determine the strategy that they can take to efficiently screen for…

Removing the pollutants from various wastewater is crucial to the environment, ecology, and humans. However, the pollutants are generally removed by chemical decomposition, which not only consumes a lot of energy but also produces carbon emissions. Electrochemical flocculation is effective to extract pollutant molecules and heavy ions from…

S[subscript N]2 reactions are of fundamental importance in introductory organic chemistry courses, and a number of experiments suitable for the first-semester undergraduate organic lab have been previously reported. Most of these experiments have used alkyl halides as electrophiles, but alkyl halides are often less than ideal for reasons of…

A [beta]-lactam, the core structure unit of clinically important antibiotics such as penicillin and cephalosporin, is one of the most commonly encountered four-membered heterocycles in organic chemistry and is widely used in medicine and biochemistry. The Kinugasa reaction, a copper­(I)-catalyzed cycloaddition of a terminal alkyne with a nitrone,…

The American Chemical Society advocates a shift from rule-based to risk-based safety education for chemistry graduates, emphasizing meaningful student engagement in the risk assessment process for laboratory work. To implement this paradigm shift, we introduced RAMP (Recognize Hazards, Assess Risk, Minimize Risk, and Prevent Emergencies)-based…

This study aimed to determine the effect of using a virtual anatomy system (VAS) on student learning with regard to reproductive system with respect to the acquisition of misconceptions. This study used an experimental method by comparing the results of the class learning using virtual laboratory media with a control class. The result showed that…

Heterocycles, more specifically those containing nitrogen, make up a family of molecules with great pharmaceutical potential. Many approved drugs, notably anticancer drugs, contain a nitrogen-based heterocycle. To expose students to this class of molecules, we used the Paal--Knorr reaction for the synthesis of edaravone, a pyrazolone derivative.…