It has been the author's experience over many years, no doubt shared by others, that a stick of chalk usually breaks into three pieces when accidentally dropped onto the floor. I rarely gave it any thought, apart from noting that the fundamental mode of vibration of a freely supported, rigid rod has two nodes at an equal distance from each…

Plants can store the chemical energy required by their developing offspring in the form of triglycerides. These lipids can be isolated from seeds and then converted into biodiesel through a transesterification reaction. This second-year undergraduate organic chemistry laboratory experiment exemplifies the conversion of an agricultural energy…

An experiment for the identification of synthetic polymers and copolymers by analytical pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS) was developed and performed in the polymer analysis courses for third-year undergraduate students of chemistry with material sciences, and for first-year postgraduate students of polymer sciences. In…

The formation and the hydrolysis of organic salts produced by the titration of a 0.1 M solution of the following amines: methyl-, dimethyl-, trimethyl-, ethyl-, diethyl-, and triethylamine with a 0.1 M solution of acetic, chloroacetic, and dichloracetic acids are studied. The pK[subscript b] of the amine and the pH at the end point were determined…

Books about leadership are dangerous to readers who fantasize about being leaders or apply leadership ideas as if they were proven formulas. As an antidote, I offer an experimental framework in which any leadership-management model can be tested to gain experiential understanding of the model. As a result one can gain reality-based insights about…

In this paper, we investigate an approach to supporting students' learning in science through a combination of physical experimentation and virtual modeling. We present a study that utilizes a scientific inquiry framework, which we call "bifocal modeling," to link student-designed experiments and computer models in real time. In this…

In experimental physics, lab notebooks play an essential role in the research process. For all of the ubiquity of lab notebooks, little formal attention has been paid to addressing what is considered "best practice" for scientific documentation and how researchers come to learn these practices in experimental physics. Using interviews…

Academic programs generally work to make their laboratory curriculum both as instrumentation rich and up to date as possible. However, little is known about the relationship between the use of instrumentation in the curriculum and student learning. As part of our department's ongoing assessment efforts, a project was designed to probe this…

Students are well aware of the effect of the deflection of sports balls when they have been given a spin. A volleyball, tennis, or table tennis ball served with topspin results in an additional downward force that makes the ball difficult to catch and return. In soccer, the effect of sidespin causes the ball to curve unexpectedly sideways,…

Since physics is often a service course for college students, it is important to incorporate everyday examples in the curriculum that inspire students of diverse backgrounds and interests. In this regard, baseball has been a workhorse for the physics classroom for a long time, taking the form of demonstrations and example problems. In this…

An inexpensive enzyme kinetics laboratory exercise for undergraduate biochemistry students is described utilizing tyrosinase from white button mushrooms. The exercise can be completed in one or two three-hour lab sessions. The optimal amounts of enzyme, substrate (catechol), and inhibitor (kojic acid) are first determined, and then kinetic data is…

General chemistry courses are often the foundation for the study of other science disciplines and upper-level chemistry concepts. Students who take introductory chemistry courses are more often from health and science-related fields than chemistry. As such, the content taught and assessed in general chemistry courses is envisioned as building…

When carbonated beverages (which are supersaturated solutions of aqueous carbon dioxide) are confined within a narrow-necked container, events which rapidly release the gas from solution produce a fountain out of the beverage. One well-known variant of this experiment is the addition of Mentos candies to a bottle of Diet Coke. Previous reports…

The trial-unique, delayed nonmatching-to-location (TUNL) task is a recently developed behavioral task that measures spatial working memory and a form of pattern separation in touchscreen-equipped operant conditioning chambers. Limited information exists regarding the neurotransmitters and neural substrates involved in the task. The present…

This study describes a new module design for teaching research skills to analytical chemists based on the use of a student-led, in-class experiment involving coffee. The module was redesigned in response to feedback from students, and aims to give them the skills they need to be productive in future research projects both within the institution…