The use of silver in commercial products has proliferated in recent years owing to its antibacterial properties. Food containers impregnated with micro-sized silver promise long food life, but there is some concern because silver can leach out of the plastic and into the stored food. This laboratory experiment gives students the opportunity to…

An experiment has been developed in which the hydrogen-atom abstraction and the coupling of propionitrile, using Fenton's reagent, are investigated. Students learn about the regiochemistry of radical formation, the stereochemistry of product formation, and the interpretation of GC-MS data, in a safe reaction that can be easily completed in one…

This laboratory exercise is an inquiry-based investigation developed around the core experiment where students, working alone or in groups, each purify and analyze their own prescreened colored proteins using immobilized metal affinity chromatography (IMAC). Here, we present reagents and protocols that allow 12 different proteins to be purified in…

In this paper, some approaches to teaching multivariable control design are discussed, with special attention being devoted to a step-by-step transition to e-learning. The approach put into practice and presented here is developed through design projects, from which one is chosen as a competition game and is realized using the E-CHO system,…

Boston College Campus School (BCCS) is a private, non-profit, publicly funded special education school within the Lynch School of Education on the campus of Boston College. BCCS occupational therapists serve students between the ages of 3 and 21 who have severe, multiple challenges. Occasionally they partner with community schools to assist…

Students explore the fundamental chemical concepts of vapor pressure and flash point in a real-world technical context, while gaining insight into the contemporary societal issue of biofuels. Lab activities were developed using a closed-cup instrument to measure the flash point of various biodiesel samples. Pre- and post-tests revealed that the…

A low-cost biochemistry experiment is described that demonstrates current techniques in the use of catalytic DNA molecules and introduces a nonradioactive, nonfluorescent, inexpensive, fast, and safe method for monitoring these nucleic acid reactions. The laboratory involves the exploration of the 10-23 DNA enzyme as it cleaves a specific RNA…

Reactive oxygen species such as singlet oxygen have been a major focus of research in medicine. The effect of singlet oxygen on sterols within biological membranes is becoming increasingly more important. Ergosterol, a vitamin D precursor, is one such sterol. The benzoylation of ergosterol and subsequent reaction with singlet oxygen to form an…

Resonance is one of the recurring themes in physics and, as such, is important in research applications and in explaining many everyday phenomena. Students often encounter resonance during studies of simple harmonic motion, sound, mechanical waves and AC circuits. Alternatively, or in addition, resonance can be demonstrated in the context of…

Let us now praise famous physicists, and the apparatus named after them, with apologies to the writer of Ecclesiastes. I once compiled a list of about 300 pieces of apparatus known to us as X's Apparatus. Some of the values of X are familiar, like Wheatstone and Kelvin and Faraday, but have you heard of Pickering or Rhumkorff or Barlow? In an…

Techniques are presented for improving the technical writing of chemical engineering students enrolled in an undergraduate laboratory course. The principles of writing covered are adopted from the book, Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace, by Joseph M. Williams: General examples of writing are taken from this book and then are recast into examples…

Sally Smith's contribution to the world of children with learning disabilities is well documented, particularly by the other contributors to this journal. An area deserving attention, but one usually overlooked, is Smith's understanding of the parent's perspective--the challenges of parenting a child with learning disabilities. It was a priceless…

In this article, the author narrates her application of what she learned from her internship at Sally Smith's Lab School of Washington to her new school and shares the favorable impact it had brought on her teaching career. The author shares her first exposure to the powerful effects of Smith's "Live It, Learn It" methodology as she…

A project involving the synthesis of an isomorphic double sulfite series and characterization by classical inorganic chemical analyses is described. The project is performed by upper-level undergraduate students in the laboratory. This compound series is suitable for examining several chemical concepts and analytical techniques in inorganic…

In "Photobacterium," the flavin reductase encoded by "lux"G regenerates the reduced form of flavin mononucleotide (FMN). Reduced FMN is one of the substrates of the luciferase enzyme that catalyzes a light-emitting reaction. A set of experiments, that employs a "lux"G-expression plasmid construct (pGhis) and is suitable for an undergraduate…