The goal of this laboratory exercise was for students to understand the concept of chirality and how enantiomeric excess (ee) is experimentally determined using the analysis of ibuprofen as an example. Students determined the enantiomeric excess of the analyte by three different instrumental methods: mass spectrometry, nuclear magnetic resonance…

The elementary reaction sequence A ? I ? Products is the simplest mechanism for which the steady-state and quasi-equilibrium kinetic approximations can be applied. The exact integrated solutions for this chemical system allow inferring the conditions that must fulfill the rate constants for the different approximations to hold. A graphical…

Many agencies, organizations, and researchers have called for the incorporation of inquiry-based learning in college classrooms. Providing inquiry-based activities in laboratory courses is one way to promote reformed, student-centered teaching in introductory geoscience courses. However, the literature on inquiry has relatively few geoscience…

Manu Prakash, the developer of the foldscope microscope reported on in this paper, stated that it is important to use tools that can support open-ended inquiry in the classroom, without dumbing down those tools. Scientific equipment in the school laboratory is often very expensive and only available to those who can afford it. "Frugal…

Undergraduate laboratories expose students to a wide variety of topics and techniques in a limited amount of time. This can be a challenge and lead to less exposure to concepts and activities in bio-inorganic chemistry and analytical chemistry that are closely-related to biochemistry. To address this, we incorporated a new iron determination by…

We describe a structured inquiry laboratory exercise that examines transcriptional regulation of the "NOS2" gene under conditions that simulate the inflammatory response in macrophages. Using quantitative PCR and the comparative C[subscript T] method, students are able determine whether transcriptional activation of "NOS2"…

The objective of this paper is to present a laboratory experiment that explains the phenomenon of sinking in quicksand simulated as a fluidized bed. The paper demonstrates experimentally and theoretically that the proportion of a body that sinks in quicksand depends on the volume fraction of solids and the density of the body relative to the…

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) are an effective way to integrate research into an undergraduate science curriculum and extend research experiences to a large, diverse group of early-career students. We developed a biology CURE at the University of Miami (UM) called the UM Authentic Research Laboratories (UMARL), in which…

Laboratory-based learning can be weakened by a lack of connection with underlying theory and limited contextualization to enhance motivation. To address these shortcomings, a framework for the development of web-based multimedia prelaboratory modules is proposed. The framework incorporates supportive information (content), utility value (context),…

During the fall of 1947, the first building for the Naval Arctic Research Laboratory (NARL) was constructed, which consisted of a quonset hut retrofitted as a laboratory. Scientists arrived in Barrow (Utqiagvik), Alaska, the northernmost village in the United States, not long after. The remainder of NARL was built two miles outside the village…

The present paper reports upon the design and implementation of a novel practical work pedagogy that is shown to increase students' retention of practical procedures. The chemistry exams, for 15 to 16-year olds in England, will be assessed entirely through terminal examination questions from 2018. Longer term retention of learning is critical if…

This study uses graphs of conductivity measured by a microcomputer-based laboratory (MBL) to promote students' macro, micro, and symbolic representations when learning about net ionic reactions (NIR). A total of 54 students, aged 14-15 years old participated in this research, and were randomly divided into an experimental group (N = 27) and a…

This article presents the structure of the organic chemistry laboratory Course "Synthesis and Extraction of Drugs" that is included in Modena University (Italy) in the third year of the five-year "Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technologies" degree program. This course is unique in its kind, and it aims to provide students with…

In this article, a low-cost, simple, and rapid fabrication of paper-based analytical devices (PADs) using a wax screen-printing method is reported here. The acid-base reaction is implemented in the simple PADs to demonstrate to students the chemistry concept of a limiting reagent. When a fixed concentration of base reacts with a gradually…

This paper presents a set of laboratory classes to be taught as a part of a 1 year calculus-based physics class. It is composed of 7 modules designed to bring together experiments and computer simulations. Each module uses both simulations and experiments to address a phenomenon under study, and lasts for 3 weeks (21 weeks total for the whole…