The goal of this laboratory exercise is to give upper-level undergraduate students an introduction to sterile technique in mammalian cell culture and metabolism. The experiment can be completed within a 3-h lab period and can be performed either in conjunction with other biochemistry/metabolism experiments or used as a stand-alone experiment. In…

Marble, formed by the metamorphism of limestone, is commonly used in the construction industry and sculpting. The mineral in marble is either calcite [CaCO[subscript 3]] or dolomite [CaMg(CO[subscript 3])[subscript 2]] or sometimes both. The pure white Carrara marble from Italy was made a household name by Michelangelo, the famous sculptor of the…

We present a simple and affordable method for making a surface electrodynamic trap for microparticles. The principles of electrodynamic trapping of charged particles are discussed and step-by-step instructions on how to make a surface trap are given. In addition to the electrodynamic trap implementation and operation process, options for its…

The CRISPR/Cas9 system is widely used for editing genes in various organisms and is a very useful tool due to its versatility, simplicity, and efficiency. To teach its principles to post-graduate students we designed a laboratory activity to obtain and analyze PDS3 mutants in "Arabidopsis thaliana" plants consisting of: 1) Design of…

The students following Engineering disciplines should acquire a conceptual understanding of the concepts and the processors and attitudes. There are two recognizable learning environments for students: classroom and laboratory environments. With the COVID-19 Pandemic, both environments merged to online environments, impacting students' processes…

Chemistry includes observable phenomena and materials related to daily life, but learners sometimes have difficulties understanding the theoretical and abstract nature of chemistry as well as its applications and relating it to everyday experiences. In this manner, the aim of the study is to determine and assess whether pre-service science and…

A student experiment that uses QuEChERS (quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe) methodology for extraction and HPLC for quantitative determination of tocopherols from seeds and nuts is described here. Chromatographic separation is achieved by using a pentafluorophenyl stationary phase which gives enhanced separation of the tocopherols…

The laboratory experiment presented here describes the use of a calcium ion-selective electrode (Ca-ISE) to determine the concentration of zinc in a supplement tablet. This approach was developed to show students how to expand the range of applications of Ca-ISE to enable the determination of metal ions other than Ca[superscript 2+]. To determine…

Oxidation reactions are critical components of the synthetic toolbox taught to undergraduate students during introductory organic chemistry courses. However, the oxidation reactions discussed in the undergraduate curriculum are often outdated as many organic chemistry textbooks emphasize chromium-based oxidants that are no longer in regular use by…

Organic chemistry students often struggle with reaction mechanisms, particularly in how they are proposed and justified. In this activity targeting second year organic undergraduates, students used infrared spectroscopy (IR) to track the reaction progress of two distinct aldol reactions and used polarimetry to analyze the stereoselectivity of…

Exposure to real-life applications of quantitative analysis techniques based on two gas chromatography (GC) experiments was provided to a large cohort of sophomore-level students. In one experiment, students assessed blood alcohol content by internal standardization using a homemade headspace system similar to methods implemented in forensic…

Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) are used widely in biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and clinical medicine labs. At the same time, they appear to be underrepresented in chemistry and biochemistry curricula, even though their sensitivity, selectivity, and ease of use would argue for their widespread use. We describe here an online ELISA…

Herein, we describe a simple laboratory experiment to address nanomaterial synthesis, plasmon resonance, and its application to detect Cu[superscript 2+] in ultralow concentrations. The proposed experiment is very visual and appealing for chemistry students, especially the undergraduate-level chemistry major. In this experiment, the aggregation of…

In this article, we describe an in-house polymerase chain reaction-sequence specific priming (PCR-SSP) assay designed for undergraduate medical students as part of the experimental pathogen biology and immunology (EPBI) course. It screens human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DR2 allotype from genomic DNA samples using a rapid and single-tube PCR…

Many medical schools have undergone curricular reform recently. With these reforms, time spent teaching anatomy has been reduced, and there has been a general shift to a pass/fail grading system. At Indiana University School of Medicine (IUSM), a new curriculum was implemented in fall 2016. The year-long human gross anatomy course taught in 2015…