An operationally simple, reliable, and cheap Sonogashira reaction suitable for an undergraduate laboratory class that can be completed within a day-long (8 h) laboratory session has been developed. Cross-coupling is carried out between 2-methyl-3-butyn-2-ol and various aryl iodides using catalytic amounts of bis(triphenylphosphine)palladium(II)…

The reductive amination reaction between an amine and an aldehyde or ketone is an important method to add an additional alkyl group to an amine nitrogen. In this experiment, students react a selection of benzylamines with aldehydes to form the corresponding imines. These imines are reduced with a mixture of "p"-toluenesulfonic acid…

A low-cost chaos dynamics lab is developed for quantitative demonstration of the butterfly effect using a magnetic pendulum. Chaotic motion is explored by recording magnetic time series. Students analyze the data in Excel® to investigate the butterfly effect as well as the reconstruction of the strange attractor using time delay plots. The lab…

Chemical separations are an important part of an undergraduate chemistry curriculum. Sophomore students often get experience with liquid-liquid extraction in organic chemistry classes, but liquid-liquid extraction is not as often introduced as a quantitative sample preparation method in honors general chemistry or quantitative analysis classes.…

This study aims to determine the predictive and explanatory model in terms of university students' academic performance in "General Chemistry" course and their motivational features. The participants were 169 university students in the 1st grade at university. Of the participants, 132 were female and 37 were male students. Regarding…

According to the most recent data from the federal Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, between 2001 and 2011, more than 120 university laboratory accidents have caused injuries (including one death) and millions of dollars in damages. Laboratory-safety lessons normally comprise lecture slides alongside occasional movies and tours of…

The hybridization of carbon is an important problem of quantum chemistry. It means that atomic orbitals could mix giving hybrid orbitals. Orbitals are not physical objects; they are mathematical solutions of the Schrodinger equation. The aim of this study is to determine through phenomenographic method how Science Teaching undergraduate students…

New and emerging digital technologies are making an impact on how we practice science, and this has implications on how we teach science. We introduce the concept of the Electronic Laboratory Notebook (ELN) as used in the research environment and describe how we have implemented this as a tool for providing undergraduate science students with an…

In an effort to make our classes more engaging, we recently reorganized sections of our nonmajors biology course, using current issues in biology and society as a premise to promote coherence among course content and emphasize the relevance of biological concepts to everyday life. A key aspect of the reorganization included the development and…

Digital badges are emerging as an approach to offer microaccreditation for student achievements obtained in ongoing course work. They act to offer a formal recognition and framework for multiple small components which together make a significant contribution to student learning. Badges are promoted as a way of highlighting these particular…

[Superscript 1]H NMR analysis is an important analytical technique presented in introductory organic chemistry courses. NMR instrument access is limited for undergraduate organic chemistry students due to the size of the instrument, price of NMR solvents, and the maintenance level required for instrument upkeep. The University of Georgia Chemistry…

Assigning open textbooks in college and university courses can help students save money on increasingly expensive commercial textbooks, and recent research shows that this savings can often be achieved with little to no sacrifice in textbook quality or student learning outcomes. We add to this body of research by examining the use of an open…

This study investigated undergraduate chemistry students' career aspirations and how these vary from one educational system to another in different geographic regions. The participants of this study were undergraduate chemistry students from various institutions located in Australia, New Zealand and the UK. The study took place in the form of an…

Background: One of the topics students have difficulties in understanding is electromagnetic induction. Active learning methods instead of traditional learning method may be able to help facilitate students' understanding such topics more effectively. Purpose: The study investigated the effectiveness of physical models and simulations on students'…

Organic chemistry is often promoted as a course designed to cultivate skill in scientific "ways of thinking." Expert organic chemists perceive their field as one in which plausible answers to complex questions are arrived at through analytical thought processes. They draw analogy between problem solving in organic chemistry and diagnosis…