PCR, genomic DNA isolation, and agarose gel electrophoresis are common molecular biology techniques with a wide range of applications. Therefore, we have developed a series of exercises employing these techniques for an intermediate level undergraduate molecular biology laboratory course. In these exercises, students isolate genomic DNA from the…

Epoxide chemistry is widely used in organic synthesis and regularly discussed in organic chemistry textbooks. An experiment to generate dimethyldioxirane in situ from acetone using Oxone is explained.

The consequences of broken mercury-in-glass thermometers in academic laboratories results in various health and environmental hazards, which needs to be replaced, by long-stem digital thermometers and non-mercury glass thermometers. The factors that should be considered during the mercury replacement process are types of applications in the…

A simple combination pH electrode consisting of a solid-state quinhydrone sensor and a solid-state quinhydrone reference electrode is described. Both electrodes are essentially rubber stoppers that are inserted into a special doublewalled holder.

A laboratory course called cytochrome c that focuses on the theme of biochemical research is presented. The students follow this course by incorporating team-investigation and self-directed experimentation that provides them an opportunity to experience the excitement of research.

Enzymatic methods are used to measure cholesterol levels but a simple and inexpensive method is described, which is particularly important when one has repeated lab sessions during the week. It can be carried out on the organic phase containing the lipids, without evaporating the solvent, yielding quick results.

A study of the vibrational spectroscopy of the cis and trans isomers of 1,2-dichloroethylene provides an excellent opportunity to learn the applications group theory in laboratories. The necessity of using infrared (IR) spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy in making full vibrational assignments is illustrated.

One way in which archaeologists locate a site to dig is to use a resistive survey. This can be modelled simply and instructively for students in the school laboratory.

The environmentally focused general chemistry laboratory provides a format for teaching the concepts of the mainstream laboratory within an environmental context. The capstone integrated exercise emerged as the overwhelming favorite part of this laboratory and the experiment gave students an opportunity to do a self-directed project, using the…

This paper discusses the results of a study of the requirements for developing a remote RF laboratory. This study draws on the perspectives of educators in university electrical engineering departments and in technical colleges, on the teaching of the radio frequency (RF) domain. The study investigates how these educators would like the technical…

The present study deals with a school-based professional development trajectory for secondary science teachers, aiming at scaffolding teachers in open-inquiry teaching for the topic of water quality. Its design was based on the leading principle of "guiding by scaffolding". Seven experienced teachers participated in institutional…

If you have an older physics laboratory and/or classroom space, you've probably dreamed about how to make the space more adaptable to today's technology and the best teaching and learning practices. Yet, few articles exist in the literature to give us direction for this type of renovation, thus creating the potential of misspending funds that are…

Some simple modeling with Riemann sums can be used to develop Beer's Law, which describes the relationship between the absorbance of light and the concentration of the solution which the light is penetrating. A further application of the usefulness of Beer's Law in creating calibration curves is also presented. (Contains 3 figures.)

This laboratory experiment was designed to demonstrate the application of immobilized galactosidase in food industry to hydrolyze raffinose family oligosaccharides in soymilk. This laboratory experiment was conducted for postgraduate students of biochemistry and developed for graduate and undergraduate students of biochemistry, biotechnology,…

The changes that have taken place in the organic chemistry laboratory course since 1980s are reviewed with reference to the quantity and diversity of discovery-based experiments available to date. The data illustrates that significant progress is towards accomplishing dramatic changes such as the almost universal adoption of microscale, the use of…