The written lab report--a concise and accurate accounting of an experiment, including a summary of the procedure, presentation of the results, reasoned analysis, and thoughtful explanation--is essential to the scientific endeavor and a key expression and product of inquiry. Generally, however, students and teachers dislike these reports, the…

A laboratory application with a strong component in analytical chemistry was designed for undergraduate students, in order to introduce a current problem in the environmental science field, the water contamination by antibiotics. Therefore, a simple and rapid method based on direct injection and high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass…

The Holy Cross Chemistry Department has designed and implemented an experiment on buffers as part of our Discovery Chemistry curriculum. The pedagogical philosophy of Discovery Chemistry is to make the laboratory the focal point of learning for students in their first two years of undergraduate instruction. We first pose questions in prelaboratory…

High-resolution solid-state NMR (SSNMR) spectroscopy has many advantages as a tool to characterize solid-phase material that finds applications in polymer chemistry, nanotechnology, materials science, biomolecular structure determination, and others, including the pharmaceutical industry. The technology associated with achieving high resolution…

A laboratory method for teaching inorganic qualitative analysis and chemical equations is described. The experiment has been designed to focus attention on cations and anions that react to form products. This leads to a logical approach to understand and write chemical equations. The procedure uses 3 mL plastic micropipettes to store and deliver…

The classic experiment to measure the drag coefficient involves dropping coffee filters. Wouldn't it be more fun to try something different? In fact, an experiment on the drag force is conducted nearly 4000 times a day during the baseball season and you have free access to this PITCHf/x data!

The generation and conduction of neuronal action potentials (APs) were the subjects of a cell physiology exercise for first-year medical students. In this activity, students demonstrated the all-or-none nature of AP generation, measured conduction velocity, and examined the dependence of the threshold stimulus amplitude on stimulus duration. For…

This article proposes an indirect method to evaluate the corrosion rate of iron nail in simulated seawater. The official procedure is based on the direct measurement of the specimen's weight loss over time; however, a highly precise scale is required and such equipment may not be easily available. On the other hand, mobile phones equipped with…

An applied computational chemistry laboratory exercise is described in which students use modern quantum chemical calculations of chemical shifts to assign the structure of a recently isolated natural product. A pre/post assessment was used to measure student learning gains and verify that students demonstrated proficiency of key learning…

This undergraduate physical chemistry laboratory exercise introduces students to the study of probability distributions both experimentally and using computer simulations. Students perform the classic coin toss experiment individually and then pool all of their data together to study the effect of experimental sample size on the binomial…

Global interest in both renewable energies and reduction in emission levels has placed increasing attention on hydrogen-based fuel cells that avoid harm to the environment by releasing only water as a byproduct. Therefore, there is a critical need for education and workforce development in clean energy technologies. A new undergraduate laboratory…

This paper discusses the variety of ways in which The Bakken Museum has made use of replicas or simulations of historical instruments and experiments and demonstrations in education programs and exhibits for school children, families with children, and other museum audiences. Early efforts were stimulated in the mid-1980s by a collaboration with…

The aim of the study was to examine parents' and their children's experiences of science experimentation in terms of parents' roles, science process skills assessed during the experiment and academic successes regarding science lessons. Realization of science activities by students and their parents is at the centre of this study. That is why its…

Pre-nursing students of an introductory Microbiology laboratory class, having learnt typical microbiological techniques during the semester, gained the confidence of conducting an inquiry-based project as part of their lab course work. Students cooperatively performed a microbiological analysis, to evaluate safety of sushi. This paper presents…

Active learning pedagogies such as inquiry-based learning have the potential not only to improve students' science literacy but also promote affective learning and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers. Moreover, a focus on affective learning may be key to improve recruitment in STEM. Yet, we know little…