When Mentos candies are dropped into a bottle of Diet Coke, a foamy fountain jets out of the beverage container. It has previously been argued that ingredients found in Mentos candies significantly enhance this fountaining effect. Other previous work has demonstrated that the kinetics of foam production can be quantitatively monitored using a…

This article describes a straightforward approach to deliver an enzyme assay and kinetics laboratory via online delivery methods in the time of COVID-19.

Many introductory physics courses begin with the teaching of motion and kinematics. This naturally leads to the use of constant acceleration equations to solve various problems involving common motions (free fall being a notable example). Students can sometimes get the impression that these equations are the only thing they need to remember in…

Herein we present a modified iodine clock experiment which replaces starch with cellulose paper. This provides the reaction with a white solid surface in which color change can be clearly observed and reduces reagent amounts required to 540 µL per group. After data acquisition, students are required to calculate reaction orders and the reaction…

The Kicking Mule Brewing Co. at West Point enables members of our chemical engineering club, students, and beer enthusiasts alike to acquire chemical engineering acumen, knowledge, and skills by developing a tangible product. Through a rigorous on-site brewing process with subject matter experts, our goal is enhancement of student chemical…

One challenge for the introductory physics teacher is incorporating calculus techniques into the laboratory setting. It can be difficult to strike a balance between presenting an experimental task for which calculus is essential and making the mathematics accessible to learners who may be apprehensive about applying it. One-dimensional kinematics…

A Unit Operations Laboratory (UOL) is fundamental to undergraduate chemical engineering education. This article discusses a new course structure for the University of Kansas UOL and details for three new experiments covering the fundamentals of vapor-liquid equilibrium, fluid mechanics, and kinetics. Students apply knowledge from these courses as…

The oxidation of iron is an important reaction due to its high economic impact. In this laboratory exploration, the total order of this reaction was determined using commercially available handwarmer packets that rely on the iron-oxygen reaction to generate heat. The active ingredient in the handwarmer packet is iron, which interacts with…

This work describes a 10-week laboratory project studying wild-type and mutant bacterial alkaline phosphatase, in which students purify, quantitate, and perform kinetic assays on wild-type and selected mutants of the enzyme. Students also perform plasmid DNA purification, digestion, and gel analysis. In addition to simply learning important…

Understanding catalytic chemistry, collecting and interpreting kinetic data, and operating chemical reactors are critical skills for chemical engineers. This laboratory experiment provides students with a hands-on supplement to a course in chemical kinetics and reaction engineering. The oxidation of methane with a palladium catalyst supported on…

A laboratory experiment in which students study the kinetics of the Viscozyme-L-catalyzed hydrolysis of cellulose and starch comparatively was designed for an upper-division biochemistry laboratory. The main objective of this experiment was to provide an opportunity to perform enhanced enzyme kinetics data analysis using appropriate informatics…

The present work describes an undergraduate laboratory exercise for improving understanding of fundamental phenomena in cooling crystallization. The exercise of nucleation and crystal growth kinetics supports learning of theories and models presented in lectures and calculation exercises. The teaching methodology incorporates precepts the…

The POGIL-PCL project implements the principles of process-oriented, guided-inquiry learning (POGIL) in order to improve student learning in the physical chemistry laboratory (PCL) course. The inquiry-based physical chemistry experiments being developed emphasize modeling of chemical phenomena. In each experiment, students work through at least…

Students who do not progress to more advanced science disciplines in college generally do not realize that seemingly simple physical systems are--when studied in detail--more complex than one might imagine. This article presents one such phenomenon--the hydraulic jump--as a way to help students see the complexity behind the seemingly simple, and…

In this activity, science education and modern technology are bridged to teach students at the high school and undergraduate levels about protein folding and to strengthen their model building skills. Students are guided from a textbook picture of a protein as a rigid crystal structure to a more realistic view: proteins are highly dynamic…