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…

A laboratory activity is described for senior high school or first year undergraduate level students that illustrates key concepts linked to extractive metallurgy. This experiment demonstrates preferential binding of a methoxyphenolic oxime ligand to Cu[superscript 2+] in the presence of other transition metal ions in aqueous solution. The…

Most didactic lab experiments deal with the influence of temperature, concentration, pressure, surface area, and catalysts on chemical kinetics; however, few of them explore the influence of light radiation and the presence of inhibitor agents on reaction rates. In order to investigate the effects of the radiation source and the presence of…

As soon as children can see, they observe that objects fall freely. From a young age, we spontaneously construct interpretative models to understand this everyday phenomenon. Over the last three decades, numerous experiments have been developed to help students understand physics concepts regarding free fall. Although there are many…

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are a family of synthetic chemicals consisting of carbon, hydrogen, and chlorine atoms. PCBs have been produced commercially since 1929 in hundreds of industrial applications. Their continued production in the United States was phased out in the late 1970s, and strict disposal guidelines were regulated as adverse…

We discuss the use of a simple piece of equipment made of a 50 mL syringe attached to a 2 mL graduated pipet to demonstrate Boyle's law and Charles's law. A plot of the hydrostatic pressure against the reciprocal of the volume of the gas read from the equipment is linear as discussed in the paper and gives the atmospheric pressure at the…

Laboratory work in physics has traditionally focused on the verification of facts, theories and laws. In contrast, this article describes how laboratory tasks can be used to promote students understanding about the nature of science and scientific inquiry. In the project reported here, students learn about measurement uncertainties and a…

This paper presents a set of laboratory classes to be taught as a part of a 1 year calculus-based physics class. It is composed of 7 modules designed to bring together experiments and computer simulations. Each module uses both simulations and experiments to address a phenomenon under study, and lasts for 3 weeks (21 weeks total for the whole…

In classroom science laboratories, unlike a real science laboratory, the teacher can guide students away from potential dead ends and toward data that are most likely to result in accurate conclusions. Sometimes, though, allowing students to pursue dead ends and to collect "bad" data can provide especially rich learning opportunities.…

In this article, the author describes a chemistry gas experiment that she developed with the intent of integrating inquiry and Problem-Based Learning (PBL). The lab activity follows the principles of Ambitious Science Teaching (AST). Teachers (1) engage students with important science ideas, (2) elicit students' ideas while making visible what…

Thin-layer chromatography (TLC) is one of the basic analytical procedures in chemistry and allows the demonstration of various chemical principles in an educational setting. An often-overlooked aspect of TLC is the capability to quantify isolated target compounds in an unknown sample. Here, we present a suitable route to implement quantitative…

The noise level from exploding chemical demonstrations and the effect they could have on audiences, especially young children, needs attention. Auditory risk from H[subscript 2]- O2 balloon explosions have been studied, but no studies have been done on H[subscript 2]-air "eggsplosions." The peak sound pressure level (SPL) was measured…

Carbon nanomaterials have promising utility in chemical sensing including applications in preserving occupational safety, monitoring of environmental pollution, and human health. While recent advances in device fabrication and molecular design of functional materials have enabled rapid fabrication of chemical sensors from carbon nanomaterials,…

The present study describes the design of a simple teaching module for each student to fabricate a dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) that could power a small fan motor. The significance of this laboratory exercise is to stimulate students' motivation by visualizing the light being converted into electricity, which is then switched over to kinetic…

The resonance phenomenon is widely known in physics courses. Qualitatively speaking, resonance takes place in a driven oscillating system whenever the frequency approaches the natural frequency, resulting in maximal oscillatory amplitude. Very closely related to resonance is the phenomenon of mechanical beating, which occurs when the driving and…