A laboratory project for the upper-division physical chemistry laboratory is described, and it combines IR and Raman spectroscopies with Gaussian electronic structure calculations to determine the structure of the oxalate anion in solid alkali oxalates and in aqueous solution. The oxalate anion has two limiting structures whose vibrational spectra…

A differential scanning calorimeter was used to study homogeneous nucleation of ice from micron-sized aqueous ammonium sulfate aerosol particles. It is important to understand the conditions at which these particles nucleate ice because of their connection to cirrus cloud formation. Additionally, the concept of freezing point depression, a topic…

Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and GC-tandem MS (GC-MS/MS) are useful in many separation and characterization procedures. GC-MS is now a common tool in industry and research, and increasingly, GC-MS/MS is applied to the measurement of trace components in complex mixtures. This report describes an upper-level undergraduate experiment…

A laboratory experiment visually exploring two opposite basic principles of fluorescence of aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ) and aggregation-induced emission (AIE) is demonstrated. The students would prepared two salicylaldehyde-based Schiff bases through a simple one-pot condensation reaction of one equiv of 1,2-diamine with 2 equiv of…

Electrically conducting polymers are one of the promising alternative materials for technological applications in many interdisciplinary areas, including chemistry, material sciences, and engineering. This experiment was designed for providing undergraduate students with a quick and practical approach for preparation of a polyaniline-conducting…

In order to introduce the concepts of biocatalysis and its utility in synthesis to organic chemistry students, a multistep synthesis of endogenous cannabinergic ligand 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG) was tailored for use as a laboratory exercise. Over four weeks, students successfully produced 2-AG, purifying and characterizing products at each…

As nonrenewable resources deplete and educators seek relevant interdisciplinary content for organic chemistry instruction, biobased laboratory experiments present themselves as potential alternatives to petroleum-based transformations, which offer themselves as sustainable variations on important themes. Following the principles of green chemistry…

In this work, a laboratory experiment to introduce graduate students to nanotechnology is described. Students prepared poly(lactic-"co"-glycolic acid) (PLGA) nanoparticles using two different synthesis procedures, a single and a double emulsion-solvent evaporation method. The students also performed a physicochemical characterization of…

Students in the undergraduate "transport phenomena" courses typically have a greater difficulty in understanding the theoretical concepts underlying the mass transport phenomena as compared to the concepts of momentum and energy transport. An experiment based on dissolution of carbon dioxide in water was added to the course syllabus to…

It was planned to introduce online pre-laboratory session activities to a first-year undergraduate physics laboratory course to encourage a minimum level of student preparation for experiments outside the laboratory environment. A group of 16 and 17 year old laboratory work-experience students were tasked to define and design a pre-laboratory…

A beneficial project is defined and implemented for the senior project of bachelor students of mechanical engineering program in the school of engineering at American University of The Middle East (AUM). Students need to design, analysis, and optimize a solar car chassis using Design of Experiment (DOE). It is required that the design process and…

Although empirical studies have consistently indicated that students commonly struggle to learn and understand the concepts related to reflex actions, few teaching strategies have been developed that specifically address these learning difficulties. This article introduces simple teaching models that simulate the nervous pathways related to the…

The present pandemic has hurled organizations into a new social "norm"--and academia is not exempt. As a result, a novel pedagogy has evolved, demanding mechanisms of social distance teaching and learning be developed. This new era in education has learning institutions acquiring, adapting or even designing online STEM labs for physical…

In the spring semester of 2020, colleges and universities adopted online teaching as the primary modality due to campus closure for social distancing. While lectures could be more readily converted to online classes, biology labs were challenging to handle since students could not physically conduct experiments in lab classrooms. In the present…

The purposes of this study were to determine pre-service physics teachers' TPCK related to Calculator-Based Laboratory and to examine influences of some contextual factors on their TPCK. This research was based on the transformative model of TPCK that conceptualizes TPCK as a unique body of knowledge. Multiple case study design was used. Both…