The free radical chlorination of an alkane experiment is often used in the undergraduate laboratory curriculum to introduce students to the free radical mechanism, substituent effects, intermediate stability, and the relative reactivity of radicals. In this experiment, students monochlorinate multiple alkanes and analyze the reaction mixture using…

Keto-enol tautomerism is a special example of structural isomerism. In this experiment, 6-chlorofulvene is predominantly yielded during the chlorination reaction of 6'-hydroxyfulvene with POCl[subscript 3] in the presence of DMF. The high regioselectivity of this reaction is dominated by intramolecular hydrogen-bonding and steric hindrance,…

In this brief experiment, students create a superhydrophobic surface as an application of polar--nonpolar interactions and redox chemistry. Half of a zincgalvanized steel strip is coated in copper nanoparticles through electroless deposition. A layer of nonpolar octadecanethiol is added to half of that copper surface. Students classify the three…

Experimental electrochemistry offers unique opportunities for interactive instruction at all levels of education; however, widespread adoption in curricula is hindered by high costs associated with electrochemical instrumentation. Thus, the development of affordable instruments represents an essential step toward making electrochemistry accessible…

A laboratory activity is described for senior high school or first year undergraduate level students that illustrates key concepts linked to extractive metallurgy. This experiment demonstrates preferential binding of a methoxyphenolic oxime ligand to Cu[superscript 2+] in the presence of other transition metal ions in aqueous solution. The…

A study was conducted on how scientific laboratory lessons contribute to building arguments, both cognitively and socially. The population consisted of 12 second-year pre-service teachers at a college of education specializing in the teaching of biology and chemistry in middle school. The study examines the nature of the arguments students raise…

Biodiesel is an important alternative fuel synthesized by the trans-esterification of vegetable oils, animal fats, and recycled greases. In this experiment, students prepared biodiesel through the base-catalyzed trans-esterification of several vegetable oils, which were subsequently analyzed in comparison with conventional petroleum-based fuels to…

This laboratory experiment allows one to study the effect of temperature in the process of formation of hydrogen bound cyclic dimers of benzoic acid (BA). The implementation of the proposed methodology, which comprises the use of FTIR spectroscopy and quantum chemistry calculations, enables the obtaining of the thermodynamic parameters of the…

The purpose of this study is to determine the time management behaviours before starting experiments in the laboratory environment and to find out whether such behaviours are influential on academic achievement in the laboratory course. Nine pre-service science teachers were observed for 9-11 minutes per week before starting experiments for 6…

In this work we construct a timer system consisting of both hardware and software to be used in introductory-level laboratory physics courses. The Parallax P8X32A propeller based-microcontroller hardware consist of a board that registers the times of events triggered when IR photogates are blocked and unblocked. The software allows the user to…

A laboratory experiment utilizing locally available Indian Gooseberry ("Phyllanthus emblica" Linn.) extract as a bioreagent to determine iron(III) is described with the goal of providing students with hands-on experience in spectrophotometry and green chemistry. Spectrophotometry was used to measure the concentration of the complex…

A laboratory experiment introducing the concept of chemical bioconjugation of proteins to undergraduate students in a therapeutically relevant context was developed. Initially, students installed an aldehyde functionality into a protein via the oxidation of the N-terminal threonine residue of the cholera toxin subunit B (CTB) protein, which was…

Understanding social interactions among students comprises a rich area of physics education research. Here we focus on the social interactions in introductory physics laboratories (labs). Most existing research in such contexts focuses on within-group social dynamics, however, we argue that interactions between different lab groups are just as…

The proliferation of remote laboratory instruction increased substantially during the recent global pandemic. Many physics departments implemented this rapid transition without the previous experience, time, and deliberation to optimize learning experiences for students. The present quasi-experimental, nonequivalent group design study examined…

For the past several decades, high-enrollment undergraduate chemistry laboratory experiences have favored traditional approaches involving disparate daily experiments with optimized protocols provided to students. This model often results in poor learning outcomes and low student engagement, and it lacks any attention to scientific inquiry. Here,…