A piezoelectric material generates an electric potential across its surface when subjected to mechanical stress; conversely, the inverse piezoelectric effect describes the expansion or contraction of the material when subjected to some applied voltage. Piezoelectric materials are used in devices such as doorbell buzzers, barbeque igniters, and…

Microwave heating enhanced the rate of three reactions typically performed in our undergraduate organic chemistry laboratory: a Diels-Alder cycloaddition, a Wittig salt formation, and a Williamson ether synthesis. Ninety-minute refluxes were shortened to 10 min using a laboratory-grade microwave oven. In addition, yields improved for the Wittig…

First-year physics laboratories are often driven by a mix of goals that includes the illustration or discovery of basic physics principles and a myriad of technical skills involving specific equipment, data analysis, and report writing. The sheer number of such goals seems guaranteed to produce cognitive overload, even when highly detailed…

A hetero-Diels-Alder reaction that proceeds rapidly and only requires a simple filtration to purify the product is presented. The dienophile, 4-phenyl-1,2,4-triazoline-3,5-dione (PTAD), is prepared by the heterogeneous oxidation of 4-phenylurazole by the bromenium ion, Br[superscript +], generated in situ by the oxidation of potassium bromide by…

Lasers have transformed chemistry and the everyday world. Therefore, it is not surprising that undergraduate chemistry students are frequently exposed to fairly advanced laser techniques. The usual topics studied with lasers are molecular spectroscopy and chemical kinetics. Static and dynamic fluorescence experiments seem to be particularly…

In this article I support and extend the ideas presented by J. Brent Friesen in his article "Saying What You Mean; Teaching Mechanisms in Organic Chemistry" ("JCE" November, 2008). I emphasize "telling the truth" about proton transfers. The truth is that in aqueous acid most reactions are subject to "specific" acid catalysis: the only kinetically…

Students in the second-semester organic chemistry laboratory perform a Wittig reaction between butylidenetriphenylphosphorane (an ylide) and benzaldehyde and determine the relative percentages of the cis and trans isomers of the 1-phenyl-1-pentene product. Because of the highly reactive nature of this unstabilized ylide, students are introduced to…

Ronald J. Gillespie, the inventor of the Valence Shell Electron Pair Repulsion (VSEPR) model, relates how his career as researcher in Christopher Ingold's laboratories started. Gillespie developed a passion for chemistry and chemical education, searching for more appropriate and interesting ways to transmit the essential knowledge and enthusiasm…

Peptidomimetic compounds are increasingly important in drug-discovery applications. We introduce the synthesis of an N-substituted glycine oligomer, a bioactive "peptoid" trimer. The six-step protocol is conducted on solid-phase resin, enabling the synthesis to be performed by undergraduate organic chemistry students. This synthesis lab was…

In recent years, biofuel development and use has risen significantly. This undergraduate laboratory experiment educates students on the various alternative fuels that are being developed for automotive applications and the advantages and disadvantages of each. Students replicate commercially available alternative fuels, E85 and biodiesel, as well…

In this experiment, the concentrations of copper and zinc in brass are obtained by two methods. This experiment does not require advanced instrumentation, uses inexpensive chemicals, and can be easily carried out during a 3-h upper-level undergraduate laboratory. Pedagogically, the basic concepts of analytical chemistry in solutions, such as pH,…

Students commonly test the effects of chemical agents on the heart rate of the crustacean "Daphnia" magna, but the procedure has never been optimized. We determined the effects of three concentrations of ethanol, nicotine, and caffeine and of a control solution on heart rate in "Daphnia." Ethanol at 5% and 10% (v/v) reduced mean heart rate to…

Insects have many interesting behaviors that can be observed in an introductory biology laboratory setting. In the present article, we describe several reflexes using the housefly "Musca domestica" that can be used to introduce students to sensory and motor responses and encourage them to think about the underlying neural circuits and integration…

Laboratory exercises (labs) are sometimes regarded as dispensable in biochemistry and molecular biology (BMB) education for various reasons including a combination of increased class costs and small budget allocations, pressing demands for more time to lecture to fit in new BMB discoveries within constant time span of courses, and the fact that…

This paper discusses the use of video analysis software and computer-generated animations for student activities. The use of artificial video affords the opportunity for students to study phenomena for which a real video may not be easy or even possible to procure, using analysis software with which the students are already familiar. We will…