One of the most mystifying products on the market for people at any age is the glow stick: a plastic tube that, when snapped, creates a flood of bright, brilliantly colored light without the use of electricity or significant production of heat. In this case, the chemiluminescence reaction also provides an exciting phenomenon through which we can…

The blue bottle experiment is a popular chemical demonstration because of its simplicity and visual appeal. Most papers on the topic focus on a new formulation or a new presentation, but only a few discuss pedagogical application for a full lab session. This article describes the use of this experiment in the first session of undergraduate…

The electrophilic addition of a hydrohalic acid (HX) to an alkene is often one of the first reactions learned in second-year undergraduate organic chemistry classes. During the ensuing discussion of the mechanism, it is shown that this reaction follows Markovnikov's rule, which states that the hydrogen atom will attach to the carbon with fewer…

Carbon nanomaterials have promising utility in chemical sensing including applications in preserving occupational safety, monitoring of environmental pollution, and human health. While recent advances in device fabrication and molecular design of functional materials have enabled rapid fabrication of chemical sensors from carbon nanomaterials,…

In this study, we present an activity in which the free-body diagram of a real stationary object on an inclined plane can be examined interactively. We use an Apple Watch and a few other materials that can be accessed easily. Instead of an Apple Watch, a mobile phone or a tablet could also be used. This activity may be employed to introduce the…

The different ways microscale and green chemistry allow reducing the deleterious impacts of chemistry on human health and the environment are discussed in terms of their different basic paradigms: green chemistry follows the ecologic paradigm and microscale the risk paradigm. A study of the synthesis of 1-bromobutane at macro- ? microscale (109.3…

Causal reasoning is important to children's cognition and academic development. However, there have been few empirical studies on the impact of visual cues and non-verbal scaffolding on children's reasoning in continuous causal processes. Hence, the present study aims to explore how causal reasoning in continuous processes is facilitated by visual…

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) provide opportunities for undergraduate students to engage in authentic research and generally increase the participation rate of students in research. Students' participation in research has a positive impact on their science identity and self-efficacy, both of which can predict integration…

The hearts of sports fans were stirred recently by the fastest-ever try scored in international rugby. Welsh winger Dafydd Howells crossed the Fijian try line to score a mere six seconds after Angus O'Brien had started the game with a kickoff, in one of the fixtures in rugby's Junior World Cup played on June 2, 2014, in New Zealand. This…

Undergraduate research experiences benefit students' scientific skills, and recent trends in undergraduate research and education include focusing on interdisciplinary projects and on place-based learning. Here we describe a semester-long pilot interdisciplinary undergraduate research program focused on local aquatic ecosystems, discuss perceived…

Developing a broadly based positive culture of safety in undergraduate instructional laboratory settings remains a significant challenge for chemical educators. An enhanced safety component has been developed for an upper-level laboratory course based on earning a Chemical Hygiene and Safety badge. The badge requires student engagement in…

This project involves students in a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) as part of the traditional introductory biology laboratory course. Recently, research has shown that student engagement in authentic research has significant positive impacts on students, such as development of science literacy and reasoning skills. Being…

Life would not be possible without plants. Plants supply food to many organisms (including people), produce oxygen, absorb carbon dioxide from the air, provide products for human use, and homes for many other living things. It is not surprising, therefore, that plant growth is a familiar topic in the primary school science curriculum. This paper…

Cumulative assessment refers to interspersed testing in which each assessment covers all previous content and the mean assessments' grade weighs in for the final exam grade. The effect of cumulative assessment on motivation and performance might differ between summative (i.e. assessment grades weigh in for the final exam grade) and formative (i.e.…

Science is one of the most important subjects for students at all educational levels. To promote engagement, hands-on experiments can provide a 'realistic and exciting experience of the content' (Holstermann, Grube and Bögeholz, 2010: 744) and hopefully facilitate motivation. In this article, George Stylos and Konstantinos T. Kotsis present four…