We have developed a guided-inquiry laboratory exercise in which students perform viscosity measurements to infer the structure of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) in aqueous solution. The activity combines both experiments and modeling. In the experimental portion of the exercise, students measure the viscosity of several solutions of PVA with differing…

This paper investigated the effect of TRIZ ("Teoriya Resheniya Izobretatelskikh Zadatch"-Theory of Inventive Problem Solving)--STEM activities customized for nanotechnology education on middle school students' problem-solving, critical thinking, and research inquiry skills. Since STEM requires both multidisciplinary work and…

The field of biosensors is a burgeoning area of research and employs a large number of chemistry graduates. The impact of strip tests in detecting coronavirus was palpable during the recent COVID-19 pandemic and will further drive the biosensor industry. Despite their common usage, a coherent introduction to the basics of sensing remains missing…

Curriculum-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) have been shown to increase student retention in STEM fields and are starting to become more widely adopted in chemistry curricula. Here we describe a 10-week CURE that is suitable for a second-semester organic chemistry laboratory course. Students synthesize small molecules and use…

Thomas Graham discovered the law that bears his name while studying gas diffusion into air and other gases. He also found that the same relationship held with gas effusion, the movement of gases through a pinhole into a vacuum. Modern understanding of diffusion and effusion is based on kinetic-molecular theory, and it is generally accepted that…

General chemistry students need to understand the concept of intermolecular forces and use them to predict the properties of materials. To do this, they must create symbolic representations of molecules, relate these to physical observations, and explain them using submicroscopic theoretical constructs. When these concepts are taught separately,…

For six semesters, activities have been incorporated into first year general chemistry courses in an effort to build student conceptual chemistry knowledge. The activities follow a learning cycle pedagogy (similar to Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning or POGIL activities) and consist of guiding questions involving animations, models,…