We developed a multipart laboratory experiment on the synthesis of free-standing hydrogels for junior to senior undergraduate students. In this experiment series that runs over the course of multiple 3-h lab periods, small everyday objects belonging to the students are reproduced as hydrogels by first creating negative templates in thermally cured…

The advanced organic chemistry experiments describe the preparation of fused six-membered lactams to isoxazole and isoxazoline by employing Ugi four-component reaction (U-4CR) and intramolecular nitrile oxide cyclization (INOC) synthetic sequence. The experiments were carried out in 28 h (overnight for U-4CR) and 2 h (for INOC) using commercially…

A four week laboratory experiment was designed on the basis of a modification of the Weiss-Cook reaction for the preparation of "cis"-1,5-dimethylbicyclo[3.3.0]octane-3,7-dione. In general, this very versatile organic reaction involves a two-step process reacting biacetyl with 2 mol of dimethyl-1,3-acetonedicarboxylate to form…

In the first-year general chemistry laboratory course, instrumental data collection involving sample quantification has often been limited to absorption spectroscopy due to the inaccessibility of emission techniques suitable for large enrollments and novice users. In this laboratory experiment, students explore the complementary techniques of…

Fused filament fabrication 3D printing is a process by which three-dimensional objects are created by depositing layers of a material onto a hard, flat surface by a robot. It is often referred to as an "additive manufacturing" technique because material is added in successive layers to create an object. Because many scientific…

This study focuses on designing a laboratory learning program for a high school chemistry course in which students could discover the fundamental principles of Hess's law via stepwise inquiry. By exploring the chemical properties of common desiccants, mainly those that were reactive in water, students were introduced to the exothermic reaction of…

Augmented reality (AR) is a means of superimposing artificial 3D objects over the real world via a mobile device. An AR standard file format has been recently implemented on mobile devices that current students commonly own. Here we describe three relatively nontechnical methods to produce 3D AR objects for chemistry courses and demonstrate their…

Understanding the controls of the oxidation rate of iron (Fe) in oxygenated aquatic systems is fundamental for students of the Earth and Environmental Sciences as it defines the bioavailability of Fe, a trace metal essential for life. The laboratory experiment presented here was successfully developed and used during a third-year undergraduate lab…

Many classrooms in higher education are becoming increasingly diverse. Diversity is an asset when student interactions are promoted and facilitated by instructors. The challenge is, many times students are grouped together for a collaborative project without attention to or skilled support for the learning and development that can occur through…

Fragment-based drug design (FBDD) is a promising methodology to find quality drug leads. It is important in the curriculum of a drug design course due to its impact on drug discovery. However, teaching FBDD and its use by students remain challenging in most cases. A web-based laboratory class to teach FBDD in the form of our copyrighted workshops…

To be literate in modern society no longer means that one can simply read and write. In our rapidly changing world where information is available with a few taps of our fingers, critical thinking and process-oriented learning have become an essential part of being literate. Therefore, when many of the states decided to create a unifying set of…

Zinc oxide is a common additive in food, cosmetics, and medicines. Here, we describe the validation of methods to analyze two pharmaceutical samples containing ZnO--talc powder and dermal ointment--by ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) titration. The methods developed were implemented as a practical class to students of a Quantitative Analysis…

This paper presents an experimental lab designed for undergraduate students which focuses on soil science and chemistry. Students perform a series of tests to classify soil's phosphate retaining characteristics, texture, pH, organic matter content, and permeability with the addition of a novel soil amendment, Al Mg biochar. This lab has minimal…

In this paper, the inclusion of history and philosophy of science in science teaching is proposed with the goal of depicting pre-service primary teachers' perception of the role of historical experiments in learning science and the nature of science. In order to achieve this, a teaching-learning sequence was designed and conducted in the context…

We present a novel activity to demonstrate the Doppler shift of a sound wave, incident at an angle, upon a moving reflector. This activity is intended for use in an introductory physics laboratory focused on preparing students for the health and medical fields. The activity is designed to simulate Doppler velocity measurements from ultrasound…