Semiconductors are an important class of materials; preparing ZnO nanorods allows semiconducting properties to be easily observed. The week before lab, groups of four students take 15 min to setup two fluorine-doped tin oxide glass (FTO) slides in a zinc nitrate and hexamethylenetetramine solution stored at 90°C until the next lab. Hexagonal ZnO…

Tetrakis(4-sulfonatophenyl)porphyrin (TSPP) was immobilized on patterned paper and used as a sensor for heavy metal ions in an advanced organic chemistry course. The resulting sensor could detect Hg[superscript 2+] and Cd[superscript 2+] ions colorimetrically, while Cu[superscript 2+] ion resulted in fluorescence quenching, thus demonstrating a…

A series of laboratory experiments were developed to introduce first-year chemistry students to nanoscience through a green chemistry approach. Students made and characterized the stability of silver nanoparticles using two different methods: UV-visible spectroscopy and dynamic light scattering. They then assessed the ecotoxicity of silver…

A structured inquiry experiment for inorganic synthesis has been developed to introduce undergraduate students to advanced spectroscopic techniques including paramagnetic nuclear magnetic resonance and electron paramagnetic resonance. Students synthesize multiple complexes with unknown first row transition metals and identify the unknown metals by…

Students can perceive the laboratory environment in a variety of ways that can affect what they take away from the laboratory course. This qualitative study characterizes undergraduate students' perspectives of a project-based Organic Chemistry laboratory using the theoretical framework of phenomenography. Eighteen participants were interviewed in…

During the Jurassic period (201 million to 145 million years ago), termites up to 15 mm long consumed and recycled vegetation and feces. Since then, termites have evolved into some 3,000 identified species, have colonized every continent except Antarctica, and are major contributors to nutrient cycling and vertebrate food webs (Shaw 2014).…

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…

We describe a simple experiment about sliding friction of an object moving with non-constant speed along an inclined plane. This experiment can be used to study the entire dynamical process of force and motion in various ways, depending on the mathematical level of the students. We discuss how video measurement and analysis, and mathematical…

The iPhone 6 introduced a new feature of recording video in Slo-Mo mode at 240 fps (4.17 ms interval). This great capability when integrated with video analysis freeware such as Tracker offers in-depth exploration for physical phenomena such as collisions that occur in a very short duration of time. This article discusses one such usage in…

[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Curriculum Development: Theory into Design.] This paper discusses the theoretical framework and curriculum materials that form the basis of the Investigative Science Learning Environment (ISLE) approach to learning and teaching physics. ISLE, as a philosophical approach to learning, has two core…

Today, individuals with special needs who are reported to increase each day are receiving education with their peers in general classes and are subjected to inclusive practices according to the developments in the field of special education and legal regulations. However, it is also reported that there are problems with special education in many…

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) strongly recommends that "science be taught as science is practiced." This means that the teaching approach must be consistent with the nature of scientific inquiry. In this article, the authors describe how they added scientific inquiry to a large lecture-based physiology…

Poggendorff showed experimentally, in the middle of the 19th century, that the weight of an Atwood machine is reduced when it is brought to motion. His experiment has been revisited from time to time, making use of instrumentation that reflects the technological development of the moment. In this paper, the evolution of the experiment is briefly…

As presented in physics textbooks, as well as in a few papers, the typical example of an induced motional electromotive force e[subscript mot] = "Blv" consists of a conductive rod of length "l" frictionlessly sliding with speed v along parallel wires within an orthogonal and constant uniform magnetic field of magnitude…