Through this qualitative phenomenological I studied the lived experiences of online science instructors who teach online introductory science. The problem addressed in this study was the high failure and attrition rates in online introductory science courses among undergraduate students. The purpose of this study was to explore the lived…

A new module designed to ease the transition from school to university was devised and implemented at Cardiff University School of Chemistry. Two iterations of the module are described, both of them conducted under restrictions imposed by COVID-19 pandemic regulations. Over a two-week period, students attended 15 different sessions, each designed…

The rise of global environmental issues has stressed the importance of sustainability and green chemistry teachings. Nevertheless, these topics remain largely untouched in most post-secondary organic chemistry lecture courses. This article investigates the barriers to integrating green and sustainable chemistry into organic chemistry classrooms…

Ask a physics person what the name of Robert A. Millikan brings to mind, and most would immediately think of the eponymous experiments that he did with the charge on the electron in the years 1908 to 1913. A few might remember his work, starting in 1914, with the experimental determination of Planck's constant using the photoelectric effect. Few…

The cost of infrared cameras has decreased significantly, and it is now time for chemistry educators to incorporate this tool into their teaching. In this article, we provide five ideas for this purpose, exploring the thermal effects/behaviors of some chemical substances using an infrared camera. Experiments involving affordable materials and…

Learning thermodynamics requires understanding abstract topics such as entropy and spontaneity. Students tend to rely on metaphors and everyday meanings to reason about these topics. This study investigates how students explain dissolution and precipitation using the concepts of entropy and spontaneity. Students from general chemistry, physical…

Until now, the concept of metal (0) atomic quantum clusters or nanoclusters (NCs) and their increasing role in nanotechnology due to their novel and exceptional properties in important industrial fields (such as catalysis) has not been included at the education level. Here, syntheses of both metal nanoparticles (NPs) and metal nanoclusters (with…

The Born rule, which describes the formalism for determining probabilities, is one of the most fundamental postulates in quantum mechanics. This paper presents results from an investigation into how students apply the Born rule to determine probabilities for energy and position measurements. The investigation includes two stages with independent…

College students associated with the American Chemical Society and Alpha Chi Sigma student/collegiate chapters reach almost 1 million people every year through their informal chemistry education events (chemistry outreach). Previous work has characterized their goals for chemistry outreach, with the most prevalent goal being audience learning.…

A homologous pair of stereospecific NAD-dependent enzymes, (R)- and (S)-hydroxypropyl-coenzyme M dehydrogenase, are part of a bacterial pathway of short-chain alkene and epoxide metabolism. Their discovery and study, which spans multiple publications over more than a decade, is a data rich story that combines both classical and contemporary…

The enzymatic determination of glucose in soft drinks, based on the glucose concentration measurement by means of the coupled reactions of glucose oxidase and peroxidase, has been implemented at the University of Malaga and optimized according to the Biochemistry and Chemistry undergraduate students' results and feedback throughout the last few…

An undergraduate organic chemistry laboratory experiment involving the breakage of amide C-N bonds is reported. Whereas amides are typically considered stable species due to well-established resonance effects, this experiment allows students to cleave the amide C-N bond in a nickel-catalyzed esterification process. Moreover, students perform the…

The reduction of alkenes usually involves a hydrogen source and a catalyst. This process is both expensive and not well-suited for a large teaching laboratory. This paper presents an alternative procedure using a mixture of cobalt chloride and sodium borohydride to achieve the reduction of methyl oleate to methyl stearate. This procedure is safe,…

We herein report an efficient aerobic oxidative cleavage of meso-hydrobenzoin to benzaldehyde using a heterogeneous earth-abundant metal oxide catalyst. The reaction can be carried out at 70 °C in ethanol and uses a balloon filled with O2 as oxidant. Reagents are simple and have long shelf lives, and the whole laboratory exercise can be done in…

The bioinspired polymer polydopamine is synthesized and deposited on semiconductive glass substrates under different synthesis conditions (pH and oxidant type). Electrochemical methods are used to verify polymer deposition on the substrate and to examine the charge transfer properties of the obtained coatings. The presence of aromatic rings from…