A simple, reliable, and cost-effective experiment is presented in which students synthesized citrate-capped gold nanoparticles (GNPs), functionalized them with poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), and transferred the PEG-GNPs from water to the organic phase dichloromethane. The experiment introduces students to nanotechnology with foci on important…

Virtual worlds are a potential medium for teaching college-level chemistry laboratory courses. To determine the feasibility of conducting chemistry experiments in such an environment, undergraduate students performed two experiments in the immersive virtual world of Second Life (SL) as part of their regular General Chemistry 2 laboratory course.…

With the increasing importance in the application of the molecular biological detection technology in the field of food safety, strengthening education in molecular biology experimental techniques is more necessary for the culture of the students in food quality and safety major. However, molecular biology experiments are not always in curricula…

Reformed experimental activities (REActivities) are an innovative approach to the delivery of the traditional material in an undergraduate organic chemistry laboratory. A description of the design and implementation of REActivities at both a four- and two-year institution is discussed. The results obtained using a reformed teaching observational…

This article describes a general education course offering, Physics and the Arts. During the development of this course, physics and arts faculty collaborated closely. We cover the usual physics phenomena for such a course--light, color, and sound--in addition to gravity, equilibrium, and spacetime. Goals of the course are to increase students'…

This study investigates the hypothesis of a child differential sensitivity to parenting improvement. One hundred and fourteen parents of preschoolers participated in two parenting micro-trials aiming to increase parental self-efficacy in view of improving child behavior. The first micro-trial took place in a short-term laboratory experiment; the…

The purpose of this study is to explore factors that affect exclusively physical, virtual and both a Virtual-Physical (VP) and Physical-Virtual (PV) sequence of manipulatives within Studio Physics environment. In this environment students actively work together to learn through real world experimentation and simulation based activities. Activities…

System Dynamics is a required course offered to junior Mechanical Engineering students at Penn State Erie, the Behrend College. It addresses the intercoupling dynamics of a wide range of dynamic systems: including mechanical, electrical, fluid, hydraulic, electromechanical, and biomedical systems. This course is challenging for students due to the…

Information security (InfoSec) education becomes increasingly important. Building hands-on capabilities to tackle challenges is a precondition to mitigate and eliminate cyber threats. Existing studies, however, show that the field lacks pedagogically founded information security laboratories that can be used flexibly to educate both on-campus and…

Imines are important in biological chemistry and as intermediates in organic synthesis. An experiment for introductory undergraduate organic chemistry is presented in which benzaldehyde was condensed with "p"-methoxyaniline in toluene to give 4-methoxy-"N"-(phenylmethylene)benzenamine. Water was removed by azeotropic…

A five-week, research-based experiment suitable for second-semester introductory organic laboratory students is described. Each student designs, prepares, and analyzes a combinatorial array of six aromatic oligoamides. Molecules are prepared on solid phase via a six-step synthetic sequence, and purities and identities are determined by analysis of…

Hydrogen bonds are very important chemical structures that are responsible for many unique and important properties of solvents, such as the solvation power of water. These distinctive features are directly related to the stabilization energy conferred by hydrogen bonds to the solvent. Thus, the characterization of hydrogen bond energetics has…

The laboratory experiment challenges students to determine 6-propyl-2-thiouracil (PTU) based on Prussian blue complex formation. Prussian blue is formed by ferricyanide and Fe(II) ions which are generated in situ from Fe(III) ions reduced by PTU. The absorbance of this product was measured at a wavelength of 840 nm, after a reaction time of 30…

A guided-inquiry project designed to teach students the basics of spectrophotometric instrumentation at the second year level is presented. Students design, build, program, and test their own single-wavelength, submersible photometer using low-cost light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and inexpensive household items. A series of structured prelaboratory…

Shifts in educational research, in how scholarship in higher education is defined, and in how funding is appropriated suggest that educators within basic science fields can benefit from increased understanding of learning theory and how it applies to classroom practice. This article uses a mock curriculum design scenario as a framework for the…