Electroscopes have been widely used in physics education for several reasons, such as their simplicity, sensitivity and visual appeal, showing macroscopic phenomena related to the microscopic world. Although they are capable of highly accurate measurements, the procedures involved in these measurements encounter some obstacles when performed with…

Reorienting organic chemistry laboratories with an emphasis on systemic thinking can only be beneficial to students. Addressing the challenges of climate change and the development of renewable resources with a fundamental reaction, such as the hydrogenation of an alkene, will allow students to see organic chemistry as a science beneficial to…

The phyphox app has demonstrated itself to be useful and impressive for physics teaching. The app is free to download and has so many features that it seems it may be particularly helpful in this time of distance learning. Phyphox (pronounced to sound like "physics") works for Android and Apple phones, and there are many experiments…

"Sinorhizobium meliloti" is a bacterium of great agroeconomic importance because of its ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen in symbiotic association with alfalfa ("Medicago sativa") roots, and it is often used in model studies. We investigated the effects of exopolysaccharides (EPSs) in cell-to-cell and cell-to-surface…

Undergraduate laboratory courses, owing to their larger sizes and shorter time slots, are often conducted in highly structured modes. However, this approach is known to interfere with students' engagement in the experiments. To enhance students' engagement, we propose an alternative mode of running laboratory courses by creating some…

We developed a multipart laboratory experiment on the synthesis of free-standing hydrogels for junior to senior undergraduate students. In this experiment series that runs over the course of multiple 3-h lab periods, small everyday objects belonging to the students are reproduced as hydrogels by first creating negative templates in thermally cured…

Graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) often lead laboratory and tutorial sections in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), especially at large, research-intensive universities. GTAs' performance as instructors can impact student learning experience as well as learning outcomes. In this study, we observed 11 chemistry GTAs and 11…

The advanced organic chemistry experiments describe the preparation of fused six-membered lactams to isoxazole and isoxazoline by employing Ugi four-component reaction (U-4CR) and intramolecular nitrile oxide cyclization (INOC) synthetic sequence. The experiments were carried out in 28 h (overnight for U-4CR) and 2 h (for INOC) using commercially…

A four week laboratory experiment was designed on the basis of a modification of the Weiss-Cook reaction for the preparation of "cis"-1,5-dimethylbicyclo[3.3.0]octane-3,7-dione. In general, this very versatile organic reaction involves a two-step process reacting biacetyl with 2 mol of dimethyl-1,3-acetonedicarboxylate to form…

The COVID-19 pandemic put an abrupt end to face-to-face teaching at many colleges and universities. While numerous methods for synchronous and asynchronous teaching in lecture courses were quickly deployed, laboratory instruction presented a unique set of challenges. To develop online laboratories quickly would be a daunting task for an…

In the first-year general chemistry laboratory course, instrumental data collection involving sample quantification has often been limited to absorption spectroscopy due to the inaccessibility of emission techniques suitable for large enrollments and novice users. In this laboratory experiment, students explore the complementary techniques of…

The recent progress of intelligent electronic devices makes computer science, electronic and information technology, highly related to teaching and learning physics. The main question is how education can integrate this knowledge. Methods and components of new technology are applicable for education also; teachers and learners used the parts and…

The teaching of wave physics has developed over the years, including devices that demonstrate water waves being used effectively for a long time. However, it was not easy to select and display the wave frequencies. This research had developed a DIY Ripple Tank experiment set using a smartphone application to measure the properties of water waves.…

This laboratory experiment visually demonstrates the advanced scientific concept of aggregation-induced emission (AIE) using hands-on learning methods. The experiment is divided into two parts: the first period consists of synthesis and isolation of the organic compound 2(TPA-O)-TPE using typical organic chemistry lab techniques; the second period…

Understanding the controls of the oxidation rate of iron (Fe) in oxygenated aquatic systems is fundamental for students of the Earth and Environmental Sciences as it defines the bioavailability of Fe, a trace metal essential for life. The laboratory experiment presented here was successfully developed and used during a third-year undergraduate lab…