Describes an experiment designed to acquaint the chemistry student with polymerization reactions, vacuum techniques, liquid scintillation counting, gas-liquid chromatography, and the handling of radioactive materials. (MLH)

Describes an experiment in which luminescence is observed during a reaction between sodium borohydride and trisbipyridalruthenium (III). Includes a discussion of the theory of chemiluminescence. (MLH)

Suggests replacing traditional organic chemistry laboratory exercises with experiments involving an elementary research approach. The student is provided with short laboratory projects, normally involving simple reactants and products; it is an important criterion that the reactions chosen are not normally featured in student textbooks. (MLH)

Describes an experiment in which possible products of a series of reactions are tabulated together with properties which may be useful in identifying each substance. The student deduces the products and writes a balanced chemical equation for the reaction. (GS)

Describes an experiment which monitors the population of the lowest triplet state by directly observing phosphorescence intensity as a function of time. Reviews the theory concerning triplet state lifetimes, describes the experimental apparatus and procedure, and presents the method and examples of data analysis. (GS)

Explains a series of experiments that increased students' awareness and understanding of activation energy, reaction transition states, rates of reaction, provided a neat example of the diagnostic utility of infrared spectroscopy and furnished insight into the accidental research situation. (Author/GS)

Describes an experiment that involves the preparation of a chromium (III)-EDTA compound, a study of its infrared spectrum, and the potentiometric determination of two successive acid dissociation constants. (Author/GS)

Describes the experimental arrangement for x-ray analysis of samples which involves the following: the radioisotopic x-ray disk source; a student-built fluorescence chamber; the energy dispersive x-ray detector, linear amplifier and bias supply; and a multichannel pulse height analyzer. (GS)

Describes a laboratory course in Physical Geology designed to encourage students to ask their own questions and to develop and test their own answers. The essence of this approach lies in providing a minimum of preconditioning before the exercises. (MLH)

Describes the materials and laboratory techniques for the study of food chains and food webs, pyramids of numbers and biomass, energy pyramids, and oxygen gradients. Presents a procedure for investigating the effects of various pollutants on an entire ecosystem. (GS)

From a special report, "What's New in Curriculum.