Experimental electrochemistry offers unique opportunities for interactive instruction at all levels of education; however, widespread adoption in curricula is hindered by high costs associated with electrochemical instrumentation. Thus, the development of affordable instruments represents an essential step toward making electrochemistry accessible…

In this study, firstly, university biology students' conceptual understanding and potential misconceptions concerning meiosis were studied. Secondly, an easily applicable drawing task was used to foster students' metaconceptual awareness which would help them to reach conceptual change. A quasi-experimental design with a non-equivalent control…

A chemistry course designed as an elective for chemistry, biochemistry, biology, and pharmaceutical science majors is described. The course is designed for second- through fourth-year undergraduate students. The prerequisite is first-semester, second-year undergraduate organic chemistry with the second semester of the organic sequence as a…

A laboratory activity is described for senior high school or first year undergraduate level students that illustrates key concepts linked to extractive metallurgy. This experiment demonstrates preferential binding of a methoxyphenolic oxime ligand to Cu[superscript 2+] in the presence of other transition metal ions in aqueous solution. The…

Recent focus on graduate employability has exposed the inadequacies of work preparation for science students, who need an employability toolkit to navigate the modern work landscape. An established mechanism to develop students' employment awareness is Work Integrated Learning (WIL), but Australian mathematics and science students participate in…

Cankdeska Cikana Community College (CCCC) is a tribally controlled institution of higher learning that always has its eye on cultural inclusion, whether in STEM or any other program. The mathematics program at CCCC is the underlying force that ties everything together. Each of the Associate of Science degree programs requires that students pass…

Infrared (IR) thermography renders invisible infrared radiation with intuitive coloration in images and videos taken of objects, reactions, and processes. Educators can take advantage of this technology to extend students' sensory perception of chemical reactions or processes that absorb or release heat in rich detail. In theory, IR thermography…

For many reasons, physiological aspects of anatomy and physiology laboratories are often presented as simulations. While simulations effectively convey concepts, hands-on activities promote more active student engagement. Recycled soda bottles, supplemented with other inexpensive readily available supplies, can be used to create working models…

The teaching of quantitative genetic variation in the undergraduate laboratory practical environment can be difficult as, for quantitative phenotypes that are under the control of multiple loci, detection of phenotypic differences caused by individual variants is problematical without large samples, impractical in such classes. Pet dogs provide a…

Understanding diamagnetism of oxygenated and paramagnetism of deoxygenated hemoglobin, an important topic in (bio) chemistry for medical students, begins with the understanding of the detailed structure of the oxygen molecule. It continues with a short description of the structures of reactive oxygen species: the singlet form of oxygen, the…

Gas emission tubes are widely used laboratory and demonstration apparatus because the line source nature of the tube produces line spectra when viewed directly through a diffraction grating. These are long and distinctly visible images of the tube, located to either side of the zeroth order at an angle determined by the wavelength. A continuous…

Batteries are valued as devices that store chemical energy and convert it into electrical energy. Unfortunately, the standard description of electrochemistry does not explain specifically where or how the energy is stored in a battery; explanations just in terms of electron transfer are easily shown to be at odds with experimental observations.…

The experience of designing and teaching a lecture-based course about characterization techniques commonly used in solid state chemistry and materials science in an undergraduate institution is described. Among the techniques studied were the following: powder X-ray diffraction, infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron…

An undergraduate experiment combining synthesis, NMR analysis and mechanistic understanding is reported. The students perform an organocatalyzed cyclopropanation reaction of (E)-dec-2-enal and are then required to determine the diastereoselectivity and assign the relative configuration of each product using NMR spectroscopy.

Biodiesel is an important alternative fuel synthesized by the trans-esterification of vegetable oils, animal fats, and recycled greases. In this experiment, students prepared biodiesel through the base-catalyzed trans-esterification of several vegetable oils, which were subsequently analyzed in comparison with conventional petroleum-based fuels to…