With the booming interest in health food and nutrition, investigations of the antioxidant capacities of various foods have come to the forefront of food science. This general chemistry laboratory curriculum provides students with an opportunity to design and implement their own experiments relating to antioxidants in food. The curriculum is six…

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are synthetic chemicals that were manufactured in the United States between about 1930 and 1977 for use in various industrial and commercial applications because of their nonflammability, chemical stability, high boiling point, and electrical insulation properties (ATSDR, 2000). PCBs were used in numerous products…

Understanding the distinctions among heat, energy and temperature can be difficult for students at all levels of instruction, including those in engineering. Misconceptions about heat transfer have been found to persist, even after students successfully complete relevant coursework. New instructional methods are needed to address these…

Most chemical engineering undergraduate laboratories have fluid mechanics experiments in which pressure drops through pipes are measured over a range of Reynolds numbers. The standard fluid is liquid water, which is essentially incompressible. Since density is constant, pressure drop does not depend on the pressure in the pipe. In addition, flow…

Phase thermodynamics is often perceived as a difficult subject with which many students never become fully comfortable. The Gibbsian geometrical framework can help students to gain a better understanding of phase equilibria. An exercise to interpret the vapor-liquid equilibrium of a binary azeotropic mixture, using the equilibrium condition based…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to report on the results of an Massachusetts Institute of Technology Chemistry Department campaign to reduce energy consumption in chemical fume hoods. Hood use feedback to lab users is a crucial component of this campaign. Design/methodology/approach: Sash position sensor data on variable air volume fume…

Catalytic conversion is an important tool in environmental-remediation strategies and source removal of pollutants. Because a catalyst is regenerated, the chemistry can be extremely effective for conversion of undesirable pollutant species to less harmful products in situations where the pollutants have accumulated or are being continuously…

An experimental system for detecting infrared absorption using the photoacoustic (PA) effect is described. It is aimed for use at high-school level to illustrate the difference in infrared (IR) absorption among the gases contained in the atmosphere in connection with the greenhouse effect. The experimental system can be built with readily…

This paper examines quantitative differences among groups of first-year science education students regarding student- or teacher-centeredness while teaching. Our research sample comprised four groups of first-year students from university-level teacher-training programs for both primary school science and for secondary school in the subjects of…

For the field of chemistry to play a leading role in the science and technology sector of the U.S. economy it must recruit and retain the best and brightest talent from all segments of our society. Currently in the United States there is a significant disparity in the recruitment and retention of women relative to their male counterparts,…

A novel professional development curriculum model has been implemented for a chemistry teacher education programme. The aim of this five-year programme is to educate future chemistry teachers as lifelong learners and researchers, capable of following developments in both chemistry and its teaching, implementing up-to-date research findings in…

A programme of parental engagement with school science is described, in which parents and their children take part in scientific debate and practical science lessons. Three sessions, in biology, chemistry and physics, of this ongoing programme are described, through which parents have been able to support their children by learning science with…

In order to help teachers to bring their students into contact with the frontiers of chemistry, a special program for enhancing chemistry teachers' content knowledge as well as their pedagogical knowledge was launched at the Weizmann Institute of Science. The program, which was specifically designed for the chemistry teachers, consists of three…

Textbook illustrations of 3D biopolymers on printed paper, regardless of how detailed and colorful, suffer from its two-dimensionality. For beginners, computer screen display of skeletal models of biopolymers and their animation usually does not provide the at-a-glance 3D perception and details, which can be done by good hand-held models. Here, we…

Many first-year chemistry students have memorized the steps of the "scientific method" and can recite them without any prompting. But when introduced to controlled, independent, and dependent variables, they hit a brick wall. Therefore, the author of this article created a lesson that allows students to determine the fastest way to dissolve a…