The design and operation of an inverted cone, scalable vapor condenser, drawing cooling air from beyond the boundary layer and optionally working as a part of a gastight setup, are described and discussed. Besides its main use as a reflux condenser, it can also be used in one-plate distillations.

Ion-selective electrodes are among the oldest and most important potentiometric sensing methods. In this experiment, students assemble their own reusable ion-selective electrode from glass tubes with an attached PTFE membrane, [(CH[subscript 3]CH[subscript 2]CH[subscript 2]CH[subscript 2]CH[subscript 2]CH[subscript 2]CH[subscript 2]CH[subscript…

A Foldscope is an ultra-affordable paper microscope with a magnification up to 2000X and 2 micron resolution. It is economic, durable and easy to handle tool for scientific studies. Many govt. schools of Kamrup district, Assam found it difficult to use microscope in their regular practical classes for its complexity and high cost. For…

I describe a kinesthetic activity about oxygen handling by hemoglobin with two specific goals: (1) to help students gain a better understanding of how hemoglobin properties affect oxygen delivery and (2) to improve the ability of the students to actually read the hemoglobin oxygen-binding curve. The activity makes understanding oxygen delivery…

In this laboratory experiment, students explore the aquatic photochemical fate of ranitidine and cimetidine, two common pharmaceutical pollutants found in wastewater. It provides an engaging environmental context for students to develop knowledge of reaction kinetics and photochemistry as well as skill in using analytical instrumentation. This…

Level 3 characteristics are increasingly important for fingerprint identification, particularly when the fingerprints are problematic and lack level 2 details. In practice, no reliable visualization methods for level 3 features are transferred into a course for the general public, forensic students, or investigators. Our group has reported the…

This article explores the possibilities of a cheap one-dollar microscope, the Foldscope, for enhancing out-of-school science education. Developed by Manu Prakash and Jim Cybulski from Stanford University, these origami-type paper microscopes make it possible to provide all students with their own microscopes, due to the low cost. This provides…

Volumetric titrations are an accurate and precise analytical method, which explains their use in industrial and research settings and their inclusion in senior secondary chemistry curricula around the world. Students often have difficulty understanding the intricacies of titrations because they are novices being presented with a long list of…

This activity introduces droplet-based millifluidics and the usage of aqueous droplets as independent chemical microreactors for reaction-kinetics studies. Students build their own droplet generators from common macroscopic glassware and connecting parts to create trains of millimeter-sized droplets in which a redox reaction takes place. The…

The setting of this study is a remote laboratory with a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The SEM is an advanced instrument used by scientists to characterize structures in the nanoscale. The remote SEM activity was structured to address different practices of laboratory inquiry. Secondary chemistry students were requested to prepare at home…

This work documents the collaboration between the Physics department of the University of Calabria and some schools of the region in a project devoted to recovering disused instrumentation in school laboratories. The project has been conceived as a workplace experience for the students, i.e. a learning experience in a real work place. In Italy,…

Magnifying objects can foster wonder in young children because they can make new observations of familiar things. This activity helps children explore common substances and familiar materials using a magnifying glass. Magnification can help people observe living things more closely providing a link to the work of scientists and the magnifying…

An escape-room-game activity was introduced to foster team building and collaborative learning in a laboratory-experiment setting. The students were placed in a laboratory with clues and puzzles that required the students to use a sequence of analytical instruments in the laboratory in order to escape. The instruments utilized included a UV-vis…

A versatile and portable apparatus was developed to demonstrate exciting visual displays of catalytic phenomena that introduce basic concepts in catalysis, renewable energy, and chemical safety, in order to pique scientific curiosity in a variety of audiences including middle and high school students, undergraduate and graduate students, and the…

The 'Moss Safari' activity was developed to assist with knowing which organisms to look for when observing a drop of water squeezed from moss for the first time. In this case study, the activity was introduced online to 34 trainee science teachers. This was followed by a post-session questionnaire evaluating their experience of the Moss Safari.…