This work presents a simple protocol that demonstrates the use of an inexpensive household carbon monoxide detector as a useful tool to detect the release of carbon monoxide gas from thermal cheletropic decarbonylation reactions. The carbon monoxide detection method described has been employed in a short series of reactions used in a university…

During the COVID-19 pandemic, an at-home enzyme assay was developed for a biochemistry laboratory course at Arizona State University. The experiment was designed to use items that could be easily obtained and safe to use. The experiment focused on the analysis of salivary amylase using starch from food as a substrate, black tea as an inhibitor,…

This three-part laboratory experiment investigates key aspects of the Buchwald-Hartwig amination cross-coupling reaction through guided-inquiry learning strategies. The first part of this experiment utilizes high-throughput experimentation techniques to reinforce, explore, and extend fundamental concepts that are represented in the classroom,…

Incorporation of previously reported AR technology (ARiEL) for a general chemistry laboratory was attempted for the second time, a replication effort designed to provide students with an option to read about the nature of instruments used in an experiment. Students' app usage was tracked to understand the type and amount of information accessed,…

Many factors predict academic performance at university but accessing lecture recordings has not been established as one. Our aims were to quantify how and why biochemistry students accessed lecture recordings and to determine any association between accessing lecture recordings and academic outcomes. Lecture recording access data was collected…

Effective usage of augmented reality (AR) depends on good integration into the learning environment. Based on a qualitative research approach, this study investigates the effects of using AR technologies in science education to support the effective use of AR. Students' experiences of AR were gathered using a prepared questionnaire form. Within…

A practical experiment is described to estimate the distance to a star using simple equipment, suitable for secondary or undergraduate students. The brightness of the star is visually matched to a miniature filament lamp, and its distance inferred from the inverse square law. Students gain an appreciation of astronomical units and practice in…

Solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) are exciting nanoparticles used for transporting therapeutic drugs into an organism. In this laboratory work, a simple experiment is performed to introduce master's students into the field of nanotechnology, here applied to health including the applications in the healthcare/pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry.…

Infrared (IR) spectroscopy is a vibrational spectroscopic technique useful in chemical, pharmaceutical, and forensic sciences. It is essential to identify chemicals for reasons spanning from scientific research and academic practices to quality control in companies. However, in some university degrees, graduate students do not get the proficiency…

We report on an investigation of student thinking about steady-state pipe flow of an incompressible fluid. About 250 undergraduate engineering students were given a test consisting of two hydrodynamics questions, combining multiple-choice format with subsequent open-ended explanations. There is substantial evidence that students have difficulty…

With an awareness of the considerable discomfort of graduate students in grasping the crux of key concepts of voltammetry and its variants, I present an inexpensive and user-friendly hands-on setup based on the fabrication of a rotating platinum electrode to facilitate teaching the tenets and applications of hydrodynamic voltammetry (HV). Readily…

Due to social distancing constraints during the COVID-19 pandemic, several experiments were designed in the Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 semesters in our Electrochemistry and Corrosion elective course to demonstrate electrochemical phenomena and applications at the students' homes with a kit sent by the school. We report here a student-designed…

A comprehensive undergraduate experiment about extraction, separation, and identification of essential oils (EOs) from a natural plant is described. "Acori tatarinowii" Rhizoma (ATR) was used as the raw plant material. Two devices (Soxhlet and Clevenger) with different extraction principles were employed for EO extraction from ATR,…

A laboratory project to introduce upper-level undergraduates to Pd-catalyzed C-N [sigma]-bond forming reactions is described. The exercise involves evaluation of monodentate phosphine ligands and solvents for the Buchwald-Hartwig coupling of 4-chloro-or 4-bromo-anisole with morpholine. Students gain experience in the synthesis of a biarylphosphine…

This paper reports a demonstration of a 90 min on-demand class where a chemical experiment is performed to educate nonscience majors on surfactants. First-year undergraduate students perform the water ball in a water bottle experiment at home and learn about the structure and properties of organic compounds in the demonstration. The experiment is…