Microfluidics has attracted widespread interest in the fields of chemicals, materials, pharmaceuticals, biology, etc. Integrating low-cost automation based on open-source hardware/software to improve lab security and reduce time consumption is demanded in microchemical processing. In this work, we developed a "do it yourself"…

Students were tasked with the creation of videos of ordinary reactions to promote significant learning of complex concepts underlying chemical transformations. Interactive infographics were used to deliver instructions. Afterward, students planned the experimental setup for the reaction execution and video recording using their mobile phones. The…

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…

In tabletop games involving dice, it is important to ensure randomness of the dice rolls and to protect other gaming elements from being scattered by rolling dice. One way of ensuring random rolls and protecting gaming elements is to drop dice into a dice-rolling tower ("dice tower"). A dice tower is usually small (20 cm by 20 cm) and…

The use of systems in many introductory courses is limited and often implicit. Modeling two or more objects as a system and tracking the center of mass of that system is usually not included. Thinking in terms of the center of mass facilitates problem solving while exposing the importance of using conservation laws. We present below three…

Background: This article describes the design and the evaluation of a student lab program on the topic of nanoscience and technology (NST), mainly focusing on Nanoscience and its applications. The program was designed for students in grades 8-10 and was part of a larger outreach program of the Collaborative Research Center 'Function by Switching'…

Recently, there have been many calls for an increase in instruction on the nature of science (NOS) in schools (i.e. NRC, 1996; NGSS Lead States, 2013). These calls recognize the importance of this topic at all levels of science education, but there is little guidance in terms of how to address it effectively in curricula. Similarly, there have…

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of inquiry-based laboratory activities on the students' understanding of the nature of science (NOS) in learning lights and optics topic. The method used in this research is quasi experiment. Sampling technique using random sampling to class and the samples were taken from grade 8 in one of junior…

Understanding how scientific conclusions are drawn from data is central to learning about the nature of science. Many students struggle with aspects of reasoning from data, including identifying relationships among variables, interpreting graphs, coordinating theory and evidence, and not allowing personal beliefs to outweigh the data when forming…

The hydraulic impulse pump utilizes a fraction of the momentum of a flowing stream to lift a small portion of that water to a higher level. There it may be accumulated in an elevated cistern to provide sufficient water for several families, for the pump works 24 h a day with no additional source of energy. The operation of the pump is described,…

A two-part demonstration was conducted in our first-semester organic chemistry course designed to introduce students to the formation of alcohols, regioselective reactions, and analysis of organic products by NMR analysis. This demonstration utilized the oxymercuration-demercuration sequence to prepare an alcohol from an alkene in a Markovnikov…

This study aimed to explore lower secondary teachers' negotiation of the meaning of laboratory work in a professional development program. A total of 15 in-service teachers participated in the program. In the program, tensions between key ideas concerning traditional way of addressing laboratory work -- with emphasis on subject content and skills…

A novel procedure for the preparation of electrochromic WO[subscript 3] films from readily available materials is presented. It is based on the electrochemical preparation of potassium tungstate from tungsten filaments of incandescent light bulbs in a potassium hydroxide solution. Tungstic acid is then produced by proton exchange using a…

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…

Nearly two centuries ago, Fourier discovered that any periodic function of period T can be presented as a sum of sine waveforms of frequencies equal to an integer times the fundamental frequency [omega] = 2[pi]/T (Fourier's series). It is impossible to overestimate the importance of Fourier's discovery, and all physics or engineering students…