A synchrotron-enhanced Fourier transform infrared (SR-FTIR) specializes in combining the tremendous power, brightness, intensity, focusability, and tunability of the photons radiated by a synchrotron with FTIR ability to research the vibrational properties of the lighter elements (i.e., C, N, O, etc.). Infrared (IR) wavelengths correspond to the…

"Drosophila melanogaster" is a commonly utilized organism for testing hypotheses about inheritance of traits. Students in both high school and university labs study the genetics of inheritance by analyzing offspring of appropriate "Drosophila" crosses to determine inheritance patterns, including gene linkage. However, most genetics investigations…

This article describes an undergraduate electrochemistry laboratory experiment in which the students measure the L-ascorbic acid content of a real sample. Gold electrodes modified with self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of thioctic acid and cysteamine are prepared to study the effects of surface modification on the electrode reaction of L-ascorbic…

A simple method for studying the kinetics of a chemical reaction is described and the significance of reaction orders in deducing reaction mechanisms is demonstrated. In this student laboratory experiment, oxidation of iodide by iron(III) ions in an acidic medium is transformed into a clock reaction. By means of the initial rates method, it is…

This article describes a static method as an alternative to gel chromatography, which may be used as an undergraduate laboratory experiment. In this method, a constant mass of Sephadex gel is swollen in a series of protein solutions. UV-vis spectrophotometry is used to find a partition coefficient, KD, that indicates the fraction of the interior…

Originally published in a 1984 issue of "College English," Stephen North's article "The Idea of a Writing Center" has over the years been much cited in writing center scholarship. Even so, this scholarship as a whole did not proceed to gain much presence in "CE" and other broadly-oriented composition journals. Reconsidering North's piece, the…

The singularity of the exact electromagnetic fields is derived to include the "source terms" for harmonically oscillating electric (and magnetic) dipoles, so that the fields will be consistent with the full Maxwell equations with a source. It is shown explicitly, as somewhat expected, that the same [delta]-function terms for the case of static…

We study a system of two RLC oscillators coupled through a variable mutual inductance. The system is interesting because it exhibits some peculiar features of coupled oscillators: (i) there are two natural frequencies; (ii) in general, the resonant frequencies do not coincide with the natural frequencies; (iii) the resonant frequencies of both…

This study suggests that students repeating a first-year composition course benefit from working with specific tutors in the writing center. The article focuses on students who did not pass first-year composition and took a tutorial version of the course. A chi-square analysis shows that students working with a specific tutor had a higher pass…

Discovery of RNA-mediated interference (RNAi) is widely recognized as one of the most significant molecular biology breakthroughs in the past 10 years. There is a need for science educators to develop teaching tools and laboratory activities that demonstrate the power of this new technology and help students to better understand the RNAi process.…

Introductory physics laboratories have been demonstrated in some instances to be difficult or uninteresting to students at the collegiate level. We have developed a laboratory that introduces the concept of the Lorentz force and allows students to build a non-traditional DC motor out of easily acquired materials. Basic electricity and magnetism…

Though the term, "probeware" may not be a household word, it has grown more familiar to science educators over the past decade, as a new generation of high-tech instruments for collecting and analyzing data from the physical world have been introduced into school science labs. Today, those tools include digital scientific probes or sensors that…

Describes a semester-long project in which students designed, built, and operated an apparatus to separate particles by fluidization principles. Each laboratory group worked on a separate step of the design in a sequence selected by the instructor in a manner similar to the way a design team might function. (JN)

Describes a drying experiment useful in presenting the concept of simultaneous heat and mass transfer. Background information, equipment requirements, experimental procedures, and results are provided. The reasonably good agreement in the calculated rate of drying and that observed experimentally makes students feel confident in applying…

The continuing erosion of financial support for undergraduate laboratories makes cost an increasingly important factor in the choice of undergraduate animal experiments. Projects employing insect predation by rodents, which require minimal equipment and pose a number of interesting questions about animal behavior, are described. (RM)