To deliver state-of-the-art battery knowledge to undergraduates, we designed a feasible experiment to prepare flexible packaging batteries, aiming to reproduce industrial flexible packaging batteries in general chemistry laboratories. In our procedure, the materials involved are inexpensive, safe, and easy to use. No organic solvents or toxic…

Chemists have always designed and deployed cross-disciplinary approaches that interface chemistry with other disciplines to proffer solutions to many human problems. We designed a laboratory experiment that implements chemistry concepts in a biological model to prime undergraduate students to appreciate interdisciplinarity as an approach to…

An undergraduate laboratory experiment for the synthesis of biologically significant bis-4-hydroxycoumarins using a new catalyst is described here. An experimental setup plan, monitoring the reaction by TLC, isolation of the product, safe laboratory handling procedures, and significance of data reproducibility of the result are the main learning…

The goal of this laboratory exercise is to give upper-level undergraduate students an introduction to sterile technique in mammalian cell culture and metabolism. The experiment can be completed within a 3-h lab period and can be performed either in conjunction with other biochemistry/metabolism experiments or used as a stand-alone experiment. In…

The understanding of the basic principles of chromatography is of high importance for chemistry, pharmacy, and biology students. In this paper, we present a free web application which can be used as a teaching tool to introduce chromatography to undergraduate students, using one of the simplest chromatography models: the plate theory.

Amides are usually prepared using amines and acyl halides, which often implies a two-step procedure. Alternatively, coupling reagents can be used in a single-step reaction with good yields, which seems to be suitable for organic chemistry laboratory classes. This work was designed to synthesize "N"-hexylcinnamamide through a one-step…

Electrochemistry is broad and interdisciplinary by nature and as such has become a powerful tool in science, technology, engineering, math, and medical (STEMM) fields ranging from energy storage to biotechnology. However, traditional undergraduate chemistry education does not offer students the opportunity to create direct connections between…

Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) is the basis for many techniques used in biomedical research. Due to its wide use in molecular sensing, FRET is commonly introduced in many biology, chemistry, and physics courses. While FRET is of great importance in the biophysical sciences, the complexity and difficulty of constructing FRET experiments…

Soldering is a useful and necessary process for many classroom, makerspace, Fab Lab, technology and engineering lab, and science lab activities. As described in this article, soldering can pose many safety risks without proper engineering controls, standard operating procedures, and direct instructor supervision. There are many safety hazards…

Recombinant protein expression and site-directed mutagenesis of target genes have demonstrated an increasing importance in the fields of molecular biology, biochemistry, biotechnology, and medicine. By using the flavodoxin of the model cyanobacterium "Anabaena" sp. PCC 7120 as a laboratory tool, we designed a comprehensive laboratory…

In recent years, video-based lectures have been increasingly used in education as part of flipped classroom approaches, adult education, distance learning, and other applications. Though approaches in video-based lectures have been widely studied, less has been reported in the development of approaches to teach relevant technical skills, such as…

This work describes the development and evaluation of a two-session laboratory class based on Tet-on technology and sex determination in the fruit fly "Drosophila melanogaster." The Tet-on system allows conditional control of gene expression, when doxycycline is applied. A laboratory exercise has been developed to illustrate how the…

"Safety Spotlight" encourages the submission of questions from Technology and Engineering (T&E) Educators, and this month's question involves the risks of placing hazardous equipment (e.g., 3D printer, laser cutter, CNC router, etc.) in a non-technology & engineering lab under the supervision of teachers not certified to teach…

Laboratory exercises for undergraduate biochemistry students are described in which changes in sugar content during fermentation of the trendy beverage kombucha are analyzed by three methods: thin layer chromatography, a 3,5-dinitrosalicylic acid assay, and a standard commercial blood glucose meter. Each of the three analyses can be completed in a…

Traditional developmental biology laboratory classes have utilized a number of different model organisms to allow students to be exposed to diverse biological phenomena in developing organisms. This traditional approach has mainly focused on the diverse morphological and anatomical descriptions of the developing organisms. However, modern…