A traditional anatomy lab using microscope slides to examine the structures of the integumentary system was enhanced to increase connections to the real world, student engagement, and interest in the topic by adding a forensic storyline where students examined structures of the integument in order to "solve the crime". Student…

Educators play a key role in facilitating interactive learning experiences in informal science education settings, such as science centers and museums. Despite their importance, research around facilitation has generally focused on visitor impacts and not the strategies used by the educators themselves. The "ChemAttitudes" project…

Plant-derived natural products are an important source of potential medicines and continue to have a major impact on the drug discovery process. Natural product discovery assignments provide an opportunity to present various experimental techniques to undergraduate students in introductory medicinal chemistry. This assignment was developed to…

Hands-on chemistry experiments often stimulate students' curiosity about this subject, but blind or visually impaired (BVI) students usually do not get to participate in such hands-on activities. Thanks to adaptive methods and assisting technology, BVI students can actively participate in chemistry experiments. In this study, chemical laboratory…

An inquiry-based learning approach was implemented into comprehensive organic chemistry experiments focusing on the formation process of N-phenylbenzamide from the reaction between N-benzylideneaniline and benzoyl peroxide in commercial dimethyl sulfoxide. Students conducted comparative experiments using alternative reagents or reaction conditions…

Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, school students suffered from a reduction in opportunities to connect with higher education institutions, meet scientific role models in person, discuss scientific career options, and carry out hands-on practical laboratory activities. Current Chemistry Investigators (CCI) is a successful…

The aroma volatile compounds in tomatoes are strongly linked to taste and flavor. Commercial tomato varieties, however, generally lack flavor. Tomato breeding programs have therefore started to focus on increasing the flavor-enhancing volatiles, which can be more easily altered than the sugar content. Analytical efforts that identify key flavor…

A Maker-oriented experimental course in general chemistry has been created by using digital tools, such as a computer, a pressure sensor, and data processing software, in combination with a new multiple expansion method and laboratory equipment to determine the vapor pressure precisely. In this Maker chemistry experiment, the pressure sensor…

Photochemical synthesis, in which light is used as an indispensable reagent, is recognized as a green technique for organic synthesis and has been paid extensive attention. In this laboratory experiment for chemistry classes, a photoinduced C-C coupling reaction is introduced, which can be conducted under mild conditions at room temperature.…

When it comes to winning the hearts of children, it is sometimes hard for plants to compete. How do teachers make plants exciting for children? The answer lies in the ancient practice of hydroponics. Hydroponics may seem like complicated, cutting-edge technology, but, in fact, it has been around for centuries. Using hydroponics in the classroom…

Cosmetic chemistry is a prevalent part of everyday life, but there are very few undergraduate laboratories that explore this topic. Here, we present a laboratory exercise in which students use fizzing bath tablets (better known as "bath bombs") to learn about introductory kinetics. Students created their own bath bombs by combining…

The redox reaction between dioxovanadium(V) and oxalate is proposed as a suitable system to analyze the kinetics of a twostep reaction mechanism using UV-vis spectroscopy. First, the spectra of dioxovanadium(V) and its reduced counterpart oxovanadium(IV) are compared and explained using the crystal field theory. The change in absorbance can be…

Different virtual chemistry laboratories (VCLs) have been developed with which students can perform and practice their practical and experimental work, thus increasing their learning before performing the same work in a real chemistry laboratory. In this paper, we present an analysis of the existing virtual chemistry laboratories by identifying…

The spectrophotometric determination of the percent composition of an aspirin tablet is a common first-year, general chemistry undergraduate laboratory procedure. The experiment requires that a known amount of pure acetylsalicylic acid be quantitatively converted into the soluble disodium salicylic acid that is further reacted with excess…

Heat transfer is a phenomenon well known from everyday life. It is intuitively connected to the properties of materials, that is, to the physics concept of thermal conductivity relevant for cooking or maintaining the constant temperature in rooms, even without being familiar to the underlying physics. However, measurement of thermal conductivity…