A class of 18 students attending the last year of an Italian high school was divided into groups and performed the extraction of pigments contained in hibiscus tea. Each group worked at a different temperature and carried out multiple extractions using distilled water as a solvent. By means of UV-vis spectroscopy it was possible to determine the…

This article highlights the multianalytical study of exuded liquid from an ancient Egyptian sealed alabaster vase by Master's students in an applied chemistry for cultural heritage course. Master students are introduced to the field of Archaeometry that see the collaboration of experts in different areas of research such as conservators, curators…

Although environmental radioactivity is all around us, the collective public imagination often associates a negative feeling to this natural phenomenon. To increase the familiarity with this phenomenon we have designed, implemented, and tested an interdisciplinary educational activity for pre-collegiate students in which nuclear engineering and…

In this experiment, students are given a fanciful application of the standard addition method to evaluate the approximate quantity of the shell component in a sample of sand collected on the Lido di Venezia seashore. Several diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform (DRIFT) spectra are recorded from a sand sample before and after addition of…

A collaborative research program in auger spectroscopy at the University of Liverpool (England) involved scientists from 12 universities and research groups in 5 European countries and financed with international funds is described. The experience of the collaborators suggests how similar projects might be initiated and managed. (Author/MSE)