Think about making something as basic as hard candy. The ingredients are simple--sugar, water, and flavoring--yet the changes that occur are chemically amazing. Drop by drop, small portions of the syrup placed in ice water indicate how saturated the solution is becoming, until a "crack" sound occurs when the candy is at hard-crack stage, its most…

Science laboratory activities and classroom demonstrations can be both fun and serious. "Fun" in that the students get nature to expose a few of its secrets in interesting ways. "Serious" in that there needs to be respect for the equipment and materials used in experiments and demonstrations in order to stay out of harm?s way. Laboratory accidents…

Planning and prevention is the best defense against fires in school. This is particularly true in the science laboratory due to the presence of flammable gases, liquids, combustibles, and other potential sources of fire. Teachers can prevent fires from starting by maintaining prudent lab practices when dealing with combustible and flammable…

The feasibility of using an optical mouse to track the viscoelastic deformation of low-density polyethylene films that have a fixed attached load is presented. It is seen that using an optical mouse and with rudimentary experiment paraphernalia and arrangement, it is possible to get good measurements of viscoelastic deformation.

Three alternative methods for performing flame tests using cheaply and easily available cotton swabs are described. These flame tests are useful for chemical demonstrations or laboratory experiments because they are quick and easy to perform with easy cleanup and disposal methods.

Experiments are conducted for spectroscopic analysis of the allyl esters of some aromatic carboxylic acids. It is understood that these experiments allow the students to monitor the effect of hydrogen bonding on the IR stretching frequencies for the hydroxyl and carbonyl groups and also provide them with an excellent opportunity to examine the…

The unique experience of designing and conducting a reaction are afforded to the students in a similar way to what one would do in a research lab. It encouraged them to think about each procedural step and its purpose, by the discovery-based procedure.

Students' attitudes toward and conceptual understanding of chemical instrumentation is surveyed. The study shows that, in general, the students' attitudes toward using instrumentation in the lab is quite positive and they felt that using instrumentation in the lab allowed them not only to connect "chemistry" and the "real world", but also to…

A review of concepts like tunneling through a metal-molecule-metal-junction, contrast with electrochemical and optical-charge injection, strong-coupling limit, calculations of tunnel transport, electron transfer through Redox-active molecules is presented. This is followed by a discussion of experimental approaches for single-molecule measurements.

The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a Nobel Prize-winning technique that amplifies a specific segment of DNA and is commonly used to test for the presence of genetic modifications. Students use PCR to test corn meal and corn-muffin mixes for the presence of a promoter commonly used in genetically modified foods, the cauliflower mosaic virus 35S…

A simple procedure to quickly screen different consumer products for the presence of lead, cadmium, and other metals is described. This screening technique avoids expending a lot of preparation time on samples known to contain low levels of hazardous metals where only samples testing positive for the desired elements need to be analyzed…

Theoretical and experimental evidence for the dependence of viscosities of the real gases on temperature is described, suggesting that this dependence is greater than that predicted by the kinetic theory of gases. The experimental results were obtained using common modern instrumentation and could be reproduced by students in analytical or…

A novel method of studying the generation of genetic diversity in an undergraduate microbiology laboratory is described. The basis of this approach is the accumulation of mutations that confer a competitive advantage, or growth advantage in stationary phase (GASP) phenotype, to E. coli grown in stationary phase for extended periods of time.

An experiment is conducted to ascertain trace-level Pb in samples of bovine liver or muscle by applying graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrophotometry (GFAAS). The primary objective is to display the effects of physical and spectral intrusions in determining trace elements, and project the usual methods employed to minimize accuracy errors…

An experiment for third-year undergraduate a student is designed which provides synthetic experience and qualitative interpretation of the spectroscopic properties of the ruthenium complexes. It involves the syntheses and characterization of several coordination complexes of ruthenium, the element found directly beneath iron in the middle of the…