Students in an introductory inorganic chemistry course conducted a semester-long literature-based research project on the then-ongoing drinking water crisis in Flint, Michigan, USA. Students presented their findings at a poster session that was open to the public. The implications of choosing an ongoing news story as a focus and the ability for…

Jensen's scheme for the logical structure of chemistry is taken as reference to study the logical structure of physical chemistry. The scheme distinguishes three dimensions (composition and structure, energy, and time), with each dimension treated at one of the three levels (molar, molecular, and electrical). Such a structure places the outer…

Baking cakes with different recipes can provide an exercise in the application of the scientific method, illustrating the need to vary only one ingredient at a time for correct derivation of conclusions. This experiment, most likely to be performed at home, compares a cake flour with flours from durum wheat, rice and cornflour (gluten-free…

An elective course, "Toward the Greening of Our Minds": Green and Sustainable Chemistry, has been offered at Washington College since 2005. This new course without laboratory is designed for chemistry and biology majors and minors who have previously taken two semesters of general chemistry and organic chemistry. Due to the popularity of…

This paper attempts to show one of the ways history of chemistry can be teachable for chemistry teachers, it means something more than an undifferentiated mass of names and dates, establishing a temporal framework based on chemical entities that all students use. Represents a difficult equilibrium between over-simplification versus…

Energy is one of the most important unifying themes in science. Yet the way energy is conceptualized varies depending on context. In this paper, the discourse used to explain the role of energy in systems from biology, chemistry, and physics is examined from the perspective of metaphor theory. Six substance metaphors for energy are identified in…

Both Lavoisier and Priestley were committed to the role of experiment and observation in their chemistry practice. According to Lavoisier the physical sciences embody three important ingredients; facts, ideas, and language, and Priestley would not have disagreed with this. Ideas had to be consistent with the facts generated from experiment and…

Previous research on argumentation in science education has focused on the understanding of relationships between modeling and argumentation (an important topic that only recently has been addressed in few empirical studies), and the methodological difficulties related to the analysis of arguments produced in classrooms. Our study is related to…

Prediction of number of [Pi]-bonds, [sigma]-bonds, single and triple bonds of aliphatic unsaturated open-chain and cycloalkynes is a vitally important tool for students of chemistry at undergraduate and graduate level for solving different kinds of problems regarding different chemical reactions. In this manuscript, we try to present a simple and…

The aim of this laboratory exercise is to present a high school hands-on laboratory experiment, focused on obtaining and investigating the properties of various polymorphic forms of aluminum oxide. Amphoterism plays a key role when discussing the law of periodicity and periodic changes of acid-base properties of elements and their compounds. In…

The classic technique for sulfate analysis in an undergraduate quantitative analysis lab involves precipitation as the barium salt with barium chloride, collection of the precipitate by gravity filtration using ashless filter paper, and removal of the filter paper by charring over a Bunsen burner. The entire process is time-consuming, hazardous,…

Interdisciplinary experiments are being offered in upper-division chemistry laboratory courses in an attempt to encourage students to make a connection between techniques learned in one discipline to affirm chemical principles that form the basis of chemical reactions in another chemistry discipline. A new interdisciplinary experiment is described…

Although stereochemistry is an important topic in second-year undergraduate organic chemistry, there are limited options for laboratory activities that allow direct visualization of macroscopic chiral phenomena. A novel, guided-inquiry experiment was developed that allows students to explore chirality in the context of cholesteric liquid crystals.…

A hands-on symmetry project is proposed as an innovative way of teaching point groups to undergraduate chemistry students. Traditionally, courses teaching symmetry require students to identify the point group of a given object. This project asks the reverse: students are instructed to identify an object that matches each point group. Doing so…

Chemical bonding is one of the basic concepts in chemistry, and the topic of covalent bonding forms an important core of knowledge for the high school chemistry student. For many teachers it is a challenging concept to teach, not least because it relies mainly on traditional instruction and written work. Similarly, many students find the topic…