Optical polarization phenomena are omnipresent in physics, chemistry, biology, and technology. Studying optical polarization is best done through an interdisciplinary approach that combines biology and technology, which usually makes things more interesting to students. Seeing Haidinger's brush for the first time can be an exciting discovery for…

For science students doing traditional laboratory experiments, often it may feel as if the apparatus and experiment have been specifically chosen for good results. They suspect that the science they are learning in the classroom will not match nearly as well in the real world. However, many educators have observed that student motivation and…

A quantitative titration of the amount of magnesium hydroxide in milk of magnesia using only items purchased in grocery and retail stores is reported. Either vinegar or a solution of food grade citric acid serves as the titrant, while food dyes advertised as being extracted from natural sources provide the end-point indicator. An inexpensive,…

A functionalized fiber (PAN[subscript ADMAP]F) was synthesized by immobilizing "N,N'"-dimethyl-"N"-(4-pyridinyl)-1,3-propanediamine (ADMAP, a DMAP analogue) onto the surface of polyacrylonitrile fibers (PANF). The structure and morphology of the functionalized fibers were characterized by Fourier transform infrared…

This practical is aimed at students who have been introduced to the tableting process, drug delivery systems, and dissolution. The student can design and manufacture a tablet investigating the effect of excipients and their role in tablet design and then generate a release profile of the tablet by using a dissolution apparatus, flow-through cell,…

A one-pot regio- and stereoselective synthesis of a dipyrromethane and a bis(indolyl)methane based on two consecutive reactions of nitrosoalkenes with pyrrole or indole, respectively, is described as an experiment to be carried out by upper-division undergraduate students in a laboratory classroom. Importantly, the ability of electrophilic…

The role and efficacy of the laboratory in chemical education have recently been a subject of renewed discussion as researchers are called upon to address the question of whether laboratory education lives up to expectations. The COVID-19 pandemic, which forced most of the global student population to temporarily adopt remote learning, offers an…

Systematic errors are unfortunately common in analyses performed by students in teaching laboratories. Quality control (QC) tools are required to detect and solve bias in laboratory analyses. However, although QC has become routine in real-world laboratories, it is still rarely applied in teaching laboratories. For this reason, systematic errors…

In this work, we made a simple electronic tool called a 'magnetic polarity detector' which can determine the magnetic poles of permanent magnets or electromagnets. We used it in some student experiments in the physics laboratory. For example, determining the magnetic poles of permanent magnets and a current-carrying coils or electromagnets.…

Smartphones are currently proposed as potential portable laboratories to perform a wide variety of physical experiments for teaching purpose. However, the frequent lack of clarity about the ease of replication of the experiments and on their accuracy often limits their effective use. In this work we deeply compare several smartphone-based…

One of the main topics of elementary physics is the idea that every material is composed of "little particles that move around in perpetual motion, attracting each other when they are a little distance apart, but repelling upon being squeezed into one other." These particles could be atoms or molecules. Atoms are the smallest part into…

Telelab, an implementation of remote labs 2.0, is open-source and freely available for non-commercial use. The platform consists of sensors that collect data, smartphone apps that transmit data and videos from anywhere, and a web app that provides a user interface to view, analyze, and control remote experiments. Based on this platform, any…

Student understanding of the laws that describe the flow of a fluid is often hampered by a defective knowledge of basic classical mechanics (kinematics, statics, dynamics, and conservation laws) and by wrong common-sense ideas about quantities related to fluids, such as velocity and pressure. A pedagogical discussion about the Venturi effect,…

Sound is an interesting topic for physics lessons at all ages. However, it is difficult to illustrate this ubiquitous phenomenon and many models do not adequately represent the properties of sound and thus promote unwanted conceptions. The experiment presented here avoids this by visualising sound itself with the help of the schlieren technique.…

Electrochemical and spectroelectrochemical techniques are very important for characterizing energy materials. In the search for new sources of renewable energy, water splitting for hydrogen production and CO[subscript 2] reduction is attracting significant attention. These applications require efficient and durable catalysts and a detailed…