A photochemical reactor was tested in an undergraduate teaching laboratory through the environmentally friendly aromatization of a 1,4-dihydropyridine, successfully using air as an oxidant, organic dye fluorescein as a photosensitizer, and sodium carbonate as a base. This experiment allowed students to be taught key concepts of photochemistry,…

Measuring magnetic induction is occasionally performed by our students during their academic training in physics. Among the various methods used to measure it, the Hall effect is the most common and widespread. Another way consists of employing an electronic flux-meter. It is constituted by a small flat coil (SFC) connected to the input of an…

A planetarium is an invaluable tool for teaching introductory astronomy, but one that few astronomy educators have ready access to. Here we describe a do-it-yourself planetarium that can be built with modest funding. There have been other planetarium construction projects described in the literature and online, most of which use cardboard to make…

We constructed a low-cost experimental kit consisting of a compact 532-nm diode laser, optics, and optomechanical components that arrange on a small honeycomb breadboard. The kit is flexible enough to construct five typical wave optic experiments, e.g., double-slit interference, Michelson and Mach-Zehnder interferometers, diffraction, and Malus's…

We describe four classical undergraduate physics experiments that were done with everyday objects and low-cost sensors: mechanical oscillations, transmittance of light through a slab of matter, beam deformation under load, and thermal relaxation due to heat loss. We used these experiments to train students for experimental homework projects but…

In this study, we made a simple electronic electroscope called a 'polarity detector' which can determine the type of electric charge on any objects. We used the polarity detector in some student experiments in the physics laboratory. For example, when we applied a plastic rod to a piece of fabric made of wool, we could easily determine that the…

We describe a 2 h general-chemistry experiment that introduces college students not only to the concepts, synthesis, and applications of nanomaterials at an early stage but also the use of a spectrophotometer for quantification and unknown determination based on Beer's Law. The procedure involves students (1) preparing a nanocomposite by…

Magnets are familiar objects and yet magnetism as a concept remains challenging. A casual search of YouTube for magnets reveals a staggering number of videos, interesting demos involving electric and permanent magnets, and entire channels devoted to various uses for magnets. It is far more difficult to find descriptions that can help students…

The prompt introduction of single-molecule science into undergraduates' curricula is an urgent but challenging task. However, the research experiments are often too complicated and the instruments are too expensive to be widely transferred into a compulsory course of undergraduate students. Herein, we introduce a recently developed nanopore…

Electroscopes have been widely used in physics education for several reasons, such as their simplicity, sensitivity and visual appeal, showing macroscopic phenomena related to the microscopic world. Although they are capable of highly accurate measurements, the procedures involved in these measurements encounter some obstacles when performed with…

Reorienting organic chemistry laboratories with an emphasis on systemic thinking can only be beneficial to students. Addressing the challenges of climate change and the development of renewable resources with a fundamental reaction, such as the hydrogenation of an alkene, will allow students to see organic chemistry as a science beneficial to…

The phyphox app has demonstrated itself to be useful and impressive for physics teaching. The app is free to download and has so many features that it seems it may be particularly helpful in this time of distance learning. Phyphox (pronounced to sound like "physics") works for Android and Apple phones, and there are many experiments…

Undergraduate laboratory courses, owing to their larger sizes and shorter time slots, are often conducted in highly structured modes. However, this approach is known to interfere with students' engagement in the experiments. To enhance students' engagement, we propose an alternative mode of running laboratory courses by creating some…

We developed a multipart laboratory experiment on the synthesis of free-standing hydrogels for junior to senior undergraduate students. In this experiment series that runs over the course of multiple 3-h lab periods, small everyday objects belonging to the students are reproduced as hydrogels by first creating negative templates in thermally cured…

The advanced organic chemistry experiments describe the preparation of fused six-membered lactams to isoxazole and isoxazoline by employing Ugi four-component reaction (U-4CR) and intramolecular nitrile oxide cyclization (INOC) synthetic sequence. The experiments were carried out in 28 h (overnight for U-4CR) and 2 h (for INOC) using commercially…