In this study a survey was developed to investigate students' engagement during general chemistry laboratory sessions. Aspects of engagement surveyed included cognitive, behavioral, and emotional engagement, and the survey items were focused on activities during the pre-laboratory introduction, laboratory procedures, and data collection.…

Although demonstrations play a central role in teaching and learning chemistry, the effects of concrete setup principles have rarely been subject to systematic empirical studies. According to the left-to-right principle, the educator should begin with the first step of a reaction in the upper left part of the setup and then place the following…

In this brief experiment, students create a superhydrophobic surface as an application of polar--nonpolar interactions and redox chemistry. Half of a zincgalvanized steel strip is coated in copper nanoparticles through electroless deposition. A layer of nonpolar octadecanethiol is added to half of that copper surface. Students classify the three…

Experimental electrochemistry offers unique opportunities for interactive instruction at all levels of education; however, widespread adoption in curricula is hindered by high costs associated with electrochemical instrumentation. Thus, the development of affordable instruments represents an essential step toward making electrochemistry accessible…

A laboratory activity is described for senior high school or first year undergraduate level students that illustrates key concepts linked to extractive metallurgy. This experiment demonstrates preferential binding of a methoxyphenolic oxime ligand to Cu[superscript 2+] in the presence of other transition metal ions in aqueous solution. The…

A simple one-dimensional [superscript 1]H NMR experiment that quantifies protein bound to gold nanoparticles has been developed for upper-division biochemistry and physical chemistry students. This laboratory experiment teaches the basics of NMR techniques, which is a highly effective tool in protein studies and supports students to understand the…

A comprehensive experiment for third-year undergraduate students in pharmaceutical engineering is described. Students had previously completed courses in analytical chemistry, chemistry of natural products, and bioseparation engineering and had background knowledge in purification, quantitative analysis, packed column chromatography,…

The dissertation is composed of two sections. The first section is composed of chapters one, two, and three and describes the study of macrocyclic [beta]-hairpin peptides derived from [beta]-sheet peptides. The second section is composed of chapters four and five and discusses the curricular innovations made to support the remote instruction of an…

Biodiesel is an important alternative fuel synthesized by the trans-esterification of vegetable oils, animal fats, and recycled greases. In this experiment, students prepared biodiesel through the base-catalyzed trans-esterification of several vegetable oils, which were subsequently analyzed in comparison with conventional petroleum-based fuels to…

This article describes a laboratory exercise designed for undergraduate students in the subject of "Regulation of cell proliferation" which allows the students to carry out a research experiment in an important field such as cell cycle control, and to be introduced to a widely used technique in molecular biology laboratories such as the…

Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) is the basis for many techniques used in biomedical research. Due to its wide use in molecular sensing, FRET is commonly introduced in many biology, chemistry, and physics courses. While FRET is of great importance in the biophysical sciences, the complexity and difficulty of constructing FRET experiments…

When conducting biological investigations, experts constantly integrate their conceptual and quantitative understanding of variation with the design and analysis of the investigation. This process is difficult for students, because curricula often treat these concepts as separate components. This study describes the effect of a curricular…

Comprehensive monitoring in virtual laboratory learning needs a task model. This model was design based on inquiry skills, social and scientific communication of prospective physics teachers. The development of these three skills is still a problem in recent research on virtual laboratory learning. This research was research and development (RD)…

We present data displaying course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) effectiveness in providing authentic cutting-edge research experiences to undergraduates, which both private and government organizations recognize as essential. A total of 68 students were enrolled in this research with 50 students being in a traditional laboratory…

Understanding social interactions among students comprises a rich area of physics education research. Here we focus on the social interactions in introductory physics laboratories (labs). Most existing research in such contexts focuses on within-group social dynamics, however, we argue that interactions between different lab groups are just as…