The case of Well Wishes involves students in a thorough examination of the interaction among nitrogen-composed species in the septic systems and well water, which helps to clean household water. The case supports the attainment of five goals for students, and can be analyzed through classroom discussions or laboratory experiments.

A comprehensive program in the field of green chemistry, which concentrates on processing and managing of wastes produced during laboratory experiments, is presented. The primary aim of the program is to instill a sense of responsibility and a concern for the environment through organic chemistry education.

The use of KOH and a phase transfer catalyst to achieve diastereoselective Darzens condensation is described and a modification of the method for use in organic chemistry is carried out. The experiment involves the condensation of t-butyl chloroacentate and p-tolualdehyde with KOH and benzyltriethylammonium chloride in THF.

The facile, high yielding synthesis of phenylsuccinamic acids is described and one of these syntheses, the reaction of phenylsuccinic anhydride with tert-butylamine, is successfully modified and adapted for use in the second-semester organic chemistry laboratory at St. John's University. Succinamic acids are compounds that contain both the amide…

The problem with organic chemistry labs is that the educational objectives of lab instructions are often vague and seldom stated. The great majority of organic chemistry labs in American colleges and universities are based on verification experiments.

The measurement of the infrared rotation-vibration spectrum of HCl(g) is a common experiment in the physical chemistry laboratory, which allows students the opportunity to explore quantization of rotational states in diatomic molecules. It is found that the CO2 vibration-rotation spectrum if used as an addition to the HCl experiment would give the…

A novel apparatus that strengthens the connection between research and teaching laboratories and serves multiple purposes is described. A versatile laser apparatus suitable for the undergraduate teaching laboratory that may serve as polarimeter, nephelometer or fluorimeter is designed.

Episodic memory in humans is the conscious recollection of a past event. Animal models of episodic-like memory assess the memory for "what" happened, "where" it happened, and either "when" it happened, or in "which" context it happened, although recollection on such tasks is often difficult to measure. Here we present the first evidence of…

A wonderful way to engage science students is to make them think a demonstration is not turning out the way the instructor intended. Basically, throw a little humor into teaching, and they will be hooked. Described in this article is a demonstration that uses Milk of Magnesia (MOM) as a visual and humorous method to review equilibrium chemistry…

Demonstrating the steps of a signal transduction cascade usually involves radioactive materials and thus precludes its use in undergraduate teaching labs. Developing labs that allow the visual demonstration of these steps without the use of radioactivity is important for allowing students hands-on methods of illustrating each step of a signal…

An experiment to perform a simple initial investigation that illustrates concepts of speciation and equilibrium, using the instrument and chemical resources in the laboratory is presented. The investigation showed that the presence of multiple chemical species in a reaction mixture (phenol red solution) reflects the acid and base conditions…

The solvent-free or solid-state reaction systems like the Baeyer-Villiger rearrangement have become popular in the synthetic organic community and viable option for undergraduate laboratory series to reduce waste and cost and simplify reaction process. The reaction is an efficient method to transform ketones to esters and lactones.

Ethnic minority students traditionally pursue degrees and careers in the food and agricultural sciences at rates lower than their non-minority counterparts. To help improve upon this situation, the Food and Agricultural Sciences Institute (FASI) was created to expose academically talented high school students to opportunities within the food and…

Combining field experience with use of information technology has the potential to create a problem-based learning environment that engages learners in authentic scientific inquiry. This study, conducted over a 2-yr period, determined differences in attitudes and conceptual knowledge between students in a field lab and students with combined field…

The Information Group at Millipore has been successfully using a digital rights management tool to secure the email distribution of archived laboratory notebooks. Millipore is a life science leader providing cutting-edge technologies, tools, and services for bioscience research and biopharmaceutical manufacturing. Consisting of four full-time…