This study introduces a modernized approach to classical volumetric titrations for the undergraduate chemistry curriculum. Leveraging smartphones and digital top-loading balances, we performed mass-based titrations and determined end points using digital color measurements. Our aim was to make classical wet chemistry more accessible and engaging…

Pedagogical research over the past decade has shown that chemistry courses have high failure rates and low accessibility. The implementation of novel active-learning approaches has great potential to offset these trends. Fundamental concepts that serve as "pinch points" are ripe targets for designing innovative, gamified course materials…

Background and Purpose: The purpose of this research was to find out how virtual reality instruction affected students' conceptual understanding of physics concepts. Method: This study used a quasi-experimental approach with control groups before and after the test. 117 SSII physics students comprise the study's sample chosen at random from two…

Trillion Theory (TT), a new theory, estimates the cosmic origin at one trillion years. This calculation of thousands of eons is based upon a growth factor where solar systems age-out at a max of 15 billion years, only to recycle into even larger solar systems, inside of ancient galaxies that are as old as 200 billion to 900 billion years. TT is a…

Many proteins use transition metals, exploiting their properties to achieve particular metabolic effects. Some of these functions are well known, such as the use of iron and copper in oxygen redox chemistry, molybdenum in nitrogen reduction and zinc in the nucleophilic activation of water. I review these examples alongside some lesser-known…

In the current paper, we develop an approach to early science pedagogy that is based on insights about how complex adaptive systems function. Complexity approaches have an important advantage over traditional information-processing approaches: They anticipate the proverbial 'mind with a mind of its own' without having to postulate exclusively…

In this paper a well-known experiment is considered that is used to demonstrate some aspects of water boiling. It is shown that the currently popular explanation is wrong and a better explanation is proposed, backed up with experimental data. Variations of the experiment are proposed that can be used for a more in-depth examination of the…

The Phantom Bouquet is a venerable lecture demonstration that does a fine job of showing how a concave spherical mirror can form a real, inverted image. In the original demonstration, a brightly illuminated artificial rose is hung by its stem in front of a concave spherical mirror. The distance from the reflecting surface to the rose is somewhat…

Thomas Young (1773-1829) is best known in the physics community for his double-slit experiment demonstrating the wave property of light and for his work on the tensile properties of solids (Young's modulus). His reputation as a physicist was built almost entirely upon a short, three-year period (1801-1803) of intense work as an instructor in…

The hydrogen spectrum is one of the most commonly demonstrated and most commonly studied. After the visible spectral lines (Balmer series) are explained by the Rydberg's formula, it becomes immediately apparent that there will also be similar infrared and ultraviolet series. As you may have taught your students, these are called the Paschen and…

The location of the center of mass of a beam can be calculated using the values of the reaction forces at its ends. The success of an apparently erroneous solution leads the authors to seek and find an explanation for why this solution works. We illustrate the procedure with an asymmetric beam.

Previous studies have shown that children as young as 5 years of age are able to form a basic understanding of evolution after listening to a storybook about natural selection. This study offers a semiotic exploration of children's meaning making during an interactive read aloud of the same storybook by investigating what children focus on and…

A research-style laboratory experiment composed of the synthesis of MOF-74 materials, related structural characterization, and the cutting-edge application of electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) has been designed toward advanced undergraduates at East China University of Technology (ECUT). The desired monometallic MOF-74 (Ni-MOF-74…

Psychologists have studied the question of what happens to naïve or intuitive concepts about science that form before accepted scientific ideas have been taught. Studies find that both the accuracy and time required to decide about the accuracy of carefully crafted statements reveal remnants of intuitive models of science. This is true even after…

Student learning in upper-division thermal physics has not been studied to the same extent as in other courses like electromagnetism and quantum mechanics. Studies addressing reasoning and learning at the graduate level are even more limited. In this study, we conducted think-aloud interviews with eight graduate students involving questions…