A method for sample preparation and for the determination of average zinc content in algae using adsorptive stripping voltammetry are described. The students gain important didactic advantages through metal determination in environmental matrices, which include carrying out clean protocols for sampling and handling, and digesting samples using…

An iodometric assay that allows the ground-level ozone concentration to be determined with an inexpensive sampling apparatus and a homemade photometer is described. This laboratory experiment applies a variety of different fundamental concepts including oxidation-reduction chemistry, the ideal gas law, and spectroscopic analysis and also provides…

The study focuses on percarbonate-based stain removers since the percarbonate can be heated to produce additional sodium carbonate. An experiment that provides general chemistry students an opportunity to apply their knowledge of basic stoichiometry to solve a relevant, real-world problem is described.

Electrophilic aromatic substitution (EAS) experiment is designed for the second-semester and undergraduate organic chemistry laboratory. In the EAS experiment, the principles of green chemistry are discussed and illustrated in conjunction with the presentation of electrophilic aromatic substitution.

A chemical laboratory information profile (CLIP) is presented for the chemical, triethanolamine. It summarizes the chemical's physical and harmful features, exposure limits, and symptoms of major exposure for the benefit of teachers and students, who use the chemical in the laboratory.

In 4 experiments, undergraduates made hypothetical investment choices. In Experiment 1, participants paid more attention to the volatility of individual assets than to the volatility of aggregated portfolios. The results of Experiment 2 show that most participants diversified even when this increased risk because of covariation between the returns…

Research has suggested that rats increase their response rate for a low-valued reinforcer when a high-valued reinforcer will soon be available (i.e., positive induction) because the value of the low-valued substance has increased. The present study tested if such a procedure could be used to increase rats' responding for a non-reinforcing food.…

In recent years, research efforts on complex systems have contributed to improve our ability in investigating, at different levels of complexity, the emergent behaviour shown by a system in the course of its evolution. The study of emergence, an intrinsic property of a large number of complex systems, can be tackled by making use of Cellular…

This paper links experimental psycholinguistics and theoretical syntax in the study of subject--verb agreement. Three experiments of elicited spoken production making use of specific characteristics of Italian and French are presented. They manipulate and examine its impact on the occurrence of "attraction" errors (i.e. incorrect agreement with a…

Three experiments examined the effects of physical context changes and multiple extinction contexts on the renewal of conditioned suppression in humans. A conditioned suppression task used an undesirable event as the unconditional stimulus (US). One conditional stimulus (CS+) predicted the occurrence of the US and another (CS-) predicted US…

In 7 experiments, the authors explored whether visual attention (the ability to select relevant visual information) and visual working memory (the ability to retain relevant visual information) share the same content representations. The presence of singleton distractors interfered more strongly with a visual search task when it was accompanied by…

Different visualization techniques have been used for teaching chemistry concepts. Previous studies have shown that when molecular animations and video demonstrations are used, students seem to better correlate all three levels of representation: macroscopic, submicroscopic, and symbolic. This thinking process allows the students to improve their…

The main goals of these activities are to help students learn how a convex lens can serve as a magnifying lens and how light travels and creates images. These explorations will introduce middle school students to different types of lenses and how they work. Students will observe and describe how lenses bend light that passes through them and how…

In this extended earth science activity, students create a hands-on model of a volcano to achieve an understanding of volcanic structure, lava flows, formation of lava layers, and the scientific work of archaeologists and geoscientists. During this simulation activity, students have opportunities to learn science as inquiry and the nature of…

A recent study by Zara Ambadar and Jeffrey F. Cohn of the University of Pittsburgh and Jonathan W. Schooler of the University of British Columbia, examined how motion affects people's judgment of subtle facial expressions. Two experiments demonstrated robust effects of motion in facilitating the perception of subtle facial expressions depicting…