A mobile application game has been adapted to teach students about laboratory instruments, glassware, apparatus, and techniques. The game was designed with reference to a popular icebreaker game, "Charades!", to ensure that it was easily accessible to students. Students will hold a mobile phone just above their forehead, which will then…

iSchlenk, a portable instructional cart with equipment for hands-on student experience in safe handling of air-sensitive, moisture-sensitive, toxic, pyrophoric, and/or radioactive chemical materials, is described. The cart, for use by =4 students, has compressed air and vacuum from a diaphragm vacuum pump supplied to 4 three-port Schlenk lines…

This evaluation was conducted with 43 second-year students, or teacher candidates, attending the science education program of an education faculty in a Turkish university. In this study, students were asked to complete a single open-ended and gap-filling questionnaire, and their answers were evaluated according to a five-point Likert-type rubric.…

Carbon nanomaterials have promising utility in chemical sensing including applications in preserving occupational safety, monitoring of environmental pollution, and human health. While recent advances in device fabrication and molecular design of functional materials have enabled rapid fabrication of chemical sensors from carbon nanomaterials,…

Throughout the general chemistry lab curriculum, a common shortcoming is the way in which students measure, record, and manipulate quantitative data. From initial measurements with different digital and analog instruments to proper conversions, calculations, and comparisons, students are often expected to be experts before they have been taught…

This research aims to develop an instructional model using advanced laboratory equipment (ALE) based on collective intelligence attributes that can be applied to the scientifically-gifted students. The developed GI-ALE model is defined by introducing the principles of the group investigation (GI) model to the existing ALE instructional model based…

Many of us have grabbed two pieces of aluminum foil and a paper towel, quickly sandwiched them together, and exclaimed in lecture, "Look! It's easy to make a capacitor!" Then we move on from there, calculating things such as capacitances with various dielectrics or plate sizes, the capacitance of capacitor networks, RC circuits,…

In recent years, nanomaterials have entered our daily lives via consumer products; thus, it has become increasingly important to implement activities to introduce these novel materials into chemistry curricula. Here we introduce a newly developed fluorescent nanomaterial, carbon dots, as a more environmentally friendly alternative to heavy-metal…

The aim of this study is to identify cell-related misconceptions among fifth graders attending middle schools in Turkey and examine the impact of microscopy on the elimination of these misconceptions. The study was conducted with the participation of 87 fifth grade students (schoolchildren are nearly 11 years old) attending a middle school in Agri…

A few years ago it was suggested that the distance to celestial bodies could be computed by tracking their position over about 24 hours and then solving a regression problem. One only needed to use inexpensive telescopes, cameras, and astrometry tools, and the experiment could be done from one's backyard. However, it is not obvious to an amateur…

A simple photometric assembly based in an LED as a light source and a photodiode as a detector is proposed in order to follow the absorbance changes as a function of the titrant volume added during the course of acid-base titrations in the presence of a suitable visual indicator. The simplicity and low cost of the electronic device allow the…

This article deals with a modern version of Kundt's tube experiment. Using economic instruments and a couple of smartphones, it is possible to "see" nodes and antinodes of standing acoustic waves in a column of vibrating air and to measure the speed of sound.

This is the third paper in our Light-Emitting Diodes series. The series aims to create a systematic library of LED-based materials and to provide the readers with the description of experiments and pedagogical treatment that would help their students construct, test, and apply physics concepts and mathematical relations. The first paper, published…

This paper describes a new approach towards the implementation of history of physics in physics education. Reconstructed historical instruments are given to secondary school students. These students are requested to analyze these devices with the aim of collecting sufficient information in order to build their own working version of this device.…

This project is designed to improve physical chemistry and instrumental analysis laboratory courses for undergraduate students by employing as teaching tools novel technologies in electronics and data integration using the industrial Internet. The project carried out by upper-division undergraduates is described. Students are exposed to a complete…