This undergraduate laboratory experiment is designed for first-year general chemistry students with the goal of introducing the brilliant colors and magnetic properties of transition metal complexes within a bioinorganic/cell biology context. In the first laboratory period, a coordination complex formed from ferric chloride and maltol is prepared(Fe­(maltol)[subscript 3]). The intense red color of the complex is noted, and the UV-vis spectra of the ligand and complex are compared. Yeast cells are incubated with ferric chloride and with Fe­(maltol)[subscript 3]. In the second laboratory period, the yeast cells treated with the ferric chloride or Fe­(maltol)[subscript 3] are isolated and placed over ring magnets to study whether the yeast have paramagnetic properties. Yeast viability studies are done to compare the toxicity of Fe­(maltol)[subscript 3] and FeCl[subscript 3]. Students are asked to predict the magnetic properties of iron complexes of different spin and oxidation states and to consider the basis for iron uptake into yeast cells.