AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) is collaborating with BSCS (Biological Sciences Curriculum Study) in the development of a curriculum unit for eighth grade students that connects fundamental chemistry and biology concepts to better prepare them for high school biology. Recognizing that teachers play an influential role in…

Qualifications are commonly seen as one of the core instruments for governing and regulating the labour market. Linked to access to occupations and professions, qualifications define what a person needs to know and be able to do to carry out a certain activity on the labour market. Various factors, from health and safety to consumer protection and…

In reaction to the OECD-wide declining trend in scientific enrollments, the Italian government launched a policy in 2005 to promote the study of science at the university. The policy promoted extra-curricular activities for secondary school students in Chemistry, Physics, Math and Materials Science. This article evaluates the policy impact on…

Oxygen is one of the component gases of air at room temperature, making up around 20% of the atmosphere. But can oxygen be liquified? This article details a method for making small amounts of liquid oxygen in the classroom if there is no access to a cylinder of compressed oxygen gas, and two methods for identifying the fact that it is liquid…

Science textbooks have a major influence on teaching and learning. Teachers and instructors at all educational levels use them regularly not only as a guide for course content and sequence but also in the design of homework assignments and assessment probes. From this perspective, textbook questions and problems can be expected to have a strong…

The Madelung constants for binary ionic nanoparticles are determined. The computational method described here sums the Coulombic interactions of each ion in the particle without the use of partial charges commonly used for bulk materials. The results show size-dependent lattice energies. This is a useful concept in teaching how properties such as…

When science departments are designed for new builds, or are to be refurbished or moved to other parts of the school, design of preparation areas should be a major feature. It is vital that the brief contains everything that is needed including, in particular, a chemical store. But no matter how well a brief is specified, the people who actually…

Currently, most undergraduate textbooks that cover the autonomic nervous system retain the concept that autonomic nerves release either acetylcholine or norepinephrine. However, in recent years, a large volume of research has superseded this concept with one in which autonomic nerves normally release at least one cotransmitter along with a…

Purpose: This paper aims to give a brief description of some chemistry portals available worldwide, followed by a description of the chemistry portal developed for Panjab University Library, Chandigarh (India). Design/methodology/approach: A well-structured chemistry portal was designed for chemistry and its allied departments at Panjab University…

Undergraduate laboratories rarely involve lanthanide coordination chemistry. This is unfortunate in light of the ease with which many of these complexes are made and the interesting and instructive photophysical properties they entail. The forbidden nature of the 4f transitions associated with the lanthanides is overcome by incorporation of…

The discovery of the electron in 1897 deeply impacted the nature of chemistry in the twentieth century. A revolution in the theoretical structure of chemistry as well as in the instrumental tools used in chemical analysis occurred as a result of this discovery. The impact of this revolution on tin oxide chemistry over approximately a 100 year…

Every student who studies atmospheric pressure in physics or chemistry learns the principles behind the construction of barometers. Cistern barometers, such as those found in most laboratories, consist of a long glass tube containing an inverted column of liquid having an open end in a cistern of the liquid. Students learn that the column of…

In this project we developed conductive thermoplastic resins by adding varying amounts of three different carbon fillers: carbon black (CB), synthetic graphite (SG) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNT) to a polypropylene matrix for application as fuel cell bipolar plates. This component of fuel cells provides mechanical support to the stack,…

The impossibility of establishing a universal scale of Lewis basicity does not prevent the determination of the quantitative behavior of Lewis bases, thanks to scales constructed against particular Lewis acids: BF[subscript 3], 4-FC[subscript 6]H[subscript 4]OH, I[subscript 2], Li[superscript +], Na[superscript +], K[superscript +], Al[superscript…

This laboratory exercise uses a problem-based approach to expose students to some basic concepts relating to proteins and enzymes. One of the main applications of enzymes at the industrial level is their use in the detergent market. The students examine a detergent sample to ascertain whether proteolytic enzymes are a component and, if so, which…