Virtual laboratory is computer software that has the ability to perform mathematical modeling of computer equipment presented in the form of simulations. Virtual laboratory is not a substitute for real laboratory, but are used to complement and improve the weaknesses of real laboratory. This study aims to determine the effect of virtual laboratory…

In this study, students' understanding of some important features of competitive elimination and substitution reactions of alcohols was examined based on their participation in a guided inquiry activity of two organic laboratory experiments: the dehydration of cyclohexanol and the conversion of tert-butyl alcohol into tert-butyl chloride. Students…

The adulteration of food products, including honeys and syrups, is of growing concern in global food markets. Detecting adulterated food products can be difficult using traditional analytical methodologies because of complex sample matrices or poor separation of key compounds. NMR is an analytical tool that circumvents some of these issues by…

While students can learn both chemistry content and inquiry practices by participating in course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs), it is well documented that prior experiences shape perception. We conducted a case study to investigate students' first experiences with a CURE in an upper-division chemical engineering laboratory…

We provide a set of practices implemented within the last year that integrate experiential learning cycles into an established introductory wet-lab course. The use of this cycle during the course and impact on meeting course defined learning objectives and student responses are considered in defining success. Each of the three practices are…

Chemistry undergraduate curricula typically place Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) lectures under either Organic Chemistry or Spectroscopy courses, aiming for students to acquire basic knowledge for the determination of the structure of simple organic compounds. On the other hand, regarding laboratory practice, NMR is frequently disregarded by…

The relationship between surface area and dynamics of processes can be demonstrated by adding iron at room temperature to liquid nitrogen. The rate at which the liquid nitrogen boils to produce gas is related to the surface area of the iron. Adding iron in the form of consistent units that have measurable sizes can be readily connected to…

A computational experiment investigating common organic chemistry mechanisms has been developed and implemented in a junior/senior-level physical chemistry laboratory course at two institutions. Students investigated various reactions that proceed via S[subscript N]1, S[subscript N]2, E1, and E2 mechanisms using hybrid Density Functional Theory…

This article offers a critical reading of writing center workplace space. Weaving together counterstorying with semiotic, geographic, and rhetorical analysis of space, the author provides an alternative way of understanding the connections between our physical and metaphorical workspaces. Precarity and contingency, the article posits, are made…

An approach for incorporating preliminary drug discovery research into a biochemistry laboratory is described. During a total of 42 hr (one 3-hr laboratory section a week for 14 weeks), students were exposed to bioinformatics; molecular cloning; protein expression, purification, and characterization; and enzymatic kinetic assays. This…

Fluency in both the construction and interpretation of molecular structures is a critical learning objective in the second-year organic chemistry curriculum. With the introduction of PerkinElmer's ChemDraw structure drawing tool into undergraduate laboratory courses, students are challenged to develop fundamental molecular drawing skills using…

This laboratory experiment describes the production and purification of plasmid DNA for undergraduate biochemistry and biotechnology courses. This experiment performed in a one-week period includes the protocols for plasmid pVAX1-LacZ production in "Escherichia coli" DH5[alpha] cells and subsequent purification of supercoiled pVAX1-LacZ.…

A six-laboratory session biofilm-focused biochemistry laboratory module is described. Through just six four-hour laboratory sessions over three weeks, students first master background knowledge and fundamental experimental techniques to explore questions involving bacterial biofilms at the interface of microbiology and biochemistry and then…

The study of gels and their properties is a compelling topic both technologically and scientifically, and should therefore be emphasized in chemistry and material science syllabuses. In the present laboratory experiment, we propose two experiences, aimed at introducing gelation and gel transport properties using silica gels made from sodium…

A laboratory exercise on the interaction between the herbicide pendimethalin (PM) and goat serum albumin (GSA), a carrier protein present in mammalian blood circulation, is described. Fluorescence spectroscopy was used to study the binding reaction between PM and GSA. Titration of a constant amount of the protein (GSA) with increasing ligand (PM)…