In 2015, "NFPA 45, Standard on Fire Protection for Laboratories Using Chemicals," from the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) was updated to include language requiring educators to perform a documented risk assessment when conducting demonstrations in K-12 classrooms. Additionally, in the past five years numerous organizations…

The Americans with Disabilities Act allows a student with a disability to bring a service dog into any facility where the public is allowed, including academic teaching and research laboratories. However, the presence of the service dog does have an impact on the safety of the student, the service dog, and others in the laboratory. This article…

One of the most general aims of universities is to respond to the requirements of society. Health and safety are the most important aspects of professional work and play an important role in universities, as there, future professionals are trained for their future professional life. Scientific and technical degrees require adaptation to this…

Developing strong safety cultures in academic institutions requires that students at all levels be educated by faculty in chemical safety. Yet chemical safety education is missing from the chemistry curriculum. This article considers a report of numerous injuries from incidents from using flammable chemicals in demonstrations as evidence that…

Lampworking is a valuable skill for students in Chemistry and others in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) related fields. The activity described here provides instructors the resources to both learn and teach the fundamentals of lampworking. Soft glass, which can be shaped and fused with a Bunsen burner, is used to improve the…

Space-related activities remain a fertile environment for classroom applications of chemistry through both traditional lecture styles and through collaborative learning projects. With the resurgence of lunar exploration and the expansion of the commercial space sector, serious scholarship, planning, and resources have been focused on extracting…

The practical two-step synthesis of 1-phenylthiourea is reported here as an undergraduate experiment for the organic synthesis laboratory. The reactions involved in 1-phenylthiourea preparation are very useful didactic examples to illustrate concepts relating to carbonyl substitution and addition, the effect of pH on solubility of organic…

It is essential to develop a safety culture with the participation of university teachers and students in actions and studies that can contribute to safer and more sustainable practices in academic laboratories. The present work analyzes the potential of a training program to raise awareness and establish environmental education and green…

Context-based learning has become increasingly influential in science education over the last 40 years. However, it is still unclear which types of contexts foster students' interests and learning achievements and are appropriate for science classes. While contexts are usually selected by teachers or curriculum developers, this study focusses on…

Optical polarization phenomena are omnipresent in physics, chemistry, biology, and technology. Studying optical polarization is best done through an interdisciplinary approach that combines biology and technology, which usually makes things more interesting to students. Seeing Haidinger's brush for the first time can be an exciting discovery for…

We report a molecular modeling study for undergraduate students aimed at carrying out an analysis of small molecules using a systematic conformational search with VEGA ZZ, a freely available software program. Conformational analyses were performed using a systematic search based on variations of torsion angles. First, the conformations of n-butane…

A quantitative titration of the amount of magnesium hydroxide in milk of magnesia using only items purchased in grocery and retail stores is reported. Either vinegar or a solution of food grade citric acid serves as the titrant, while food dyes advertised as being extracted from natural sources provide the end-point indicator. An inexpensive,…

A functionalized fiber (PAN[subscript ADMAP]F) was synthesized by immobilizing "N,N'"-dimethyl-"N"-(4-pyridinyl)-1,3-propanediamine (ADMAP, a DMAP analogue) onto the surface of polyacrylonitrile fibers (PANF). The structure and morphology of the functionalized fibers were characterized by Fourier transform infrared…

This practical is aimed at students who have been introduced to the tableting process, drug delivery systems, and dissolution. The student can design and manufacture a tablet investigating the effect of excipients and their role in tablet design and then generate a release profile of the tablet by using a dissolution apparatus, flow-through cell,…

The role and efficacy of the laboratory in chemical education have recently been a subject of renewed discussion as researchers are called upon to address the question of whether laboratory education lives up to expectations. The COVID-19 pandemic, which forced most of the global student population to temporarily adopt remote learning, offers an…