Take-home examinations were utilized during the COVID-19 pandemic for upper-level analytical chemistry lecture courses. The questions were often scenarios which required the students to determine the best type of instrument to use and how to go about the experiment. Answers submitted were well thought out and detailed, showing that the students…

The need to develop interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) skills in young pupils has driven many educational systems to include STEM as a subject in primary schools. In this work, a science kit aimed at children from 8 to 14 years old is presented as a support platform for an innovative and stimulating approach to…

Gold nanoparticles are exciting materials in nanotechnology and nanoscience research and are being applied across a wide range of fields including imaging, chemical sensing, energy storage, and cancer therapies. In this experiment, students will synthesize two sizes of gold nanospheres (~20 and ~100 nm) and will create gold nanostars utilizing a…

One of the skills needed in the 21st century is critical thinking skills that need to be developed for secondary school students. Currently, upper-secondary students' critical thinking skills are still low. To overcome the problem, websitebased E-module learning media was developed using a STEM approach with a Problem-Based Contextual Learning…

The well-known demonstration of Pepper's ghost can be enhanced by the use of linear polarisers, which can make the image disappear.

Contribution: Prior studies comparing the effectiveness of different laboratory learning modes do not allow one to draw a universally valid conclusion, as other influences are mixed with the learning modes. In order to contribute to the existing body of work and to add another piece to the puzzle, this article demonstrates an improved methodology…

Thermodynamic characterization of micelle formation from an ionic surfactant in aqueous solutions is a classic experiment in physical chemistry. The critical micelle concentration (CMC) and the degree of micelle ionization ([alpha)] can be directly obtained by conductimetry, then thermodynamic parameters ([delta]G[subscript m][superscript o],…

The free radical chlorination of an alkane experiment is often used in the undergraduate laboratory curriculum to introduce students to the free radical mechanism, substituent effects, intermediate stability, and the relative reactivity of radicals. In this experiment, students monochlorinate multiple alkanes and analyze the reaction mixture using…

A two-week summer camp for high school students focused on sustainable polymers was developed and implemented. Students took part in experiments and interactive lessons that demonstrate polymer chemistry fundamentals alongside associated sustainability challenges and opportunities. For example, polymer concepts related to chemical properties…

COVID-19 pandemic is a disaster and prolonged crisis that has disrupted the education of millions of students with the closure of schools and universities in world-wide. This hard situation rises the necessity to develop a new teaching method to solve the problem of the massive disruption specially to practice work access. The goal of this paper…

Instructional labs are being transformed to better reflect authentic scientific practice, often by removing aspects of pedagogical structure to support student agency and decision making. We explored how these changes impact men's and women's participation in group work associated with labs through clustering methods on the quantified behavior of…

Inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) is one of the most commonly used analytical techniques for the measurement of metals in environmental matrices. However, one of the drawbacks of ICP-OES is interference, viz., spectral and nonspectral (due to transport effects) interference. In this simple laboratory experiment,…

Keto-enol tautomerism is a special example of structural isomerism. In this experiment, 6-chlorofulvene is predominantly yielded during the chlorination reaction of 6'-hydroxyfulvene with POCl[subscript 3] in the presence of DMF. The high regioselectivity of this reaction is dominated by intramolecular hydrogen-bonding and steric hindrance,…

To reduce the spread of COVID-19, most universities and colleges have moved all instruction temporarily online, including the instruction of chemistry laboratory courses. Teaching laboratory courses online while keeping students engaged is challenging and often leads to presenting prerecorded lab demonstrations, lab animations, or virtual…

This paper reports on a study aiming at examining the development of science process skills through the implementation of experiments in a science course which was performed in flipped classroom design. Flipped classroom model was implemented for a series of experimentation activities in a science classroom in which 38 science teacher candidates…