This study aims to assess whether the handling of concrete ball-and-stick molecular models promotes translation between diagrammatic representations and a concrete model (or vice versa) and the coordination of the different types of structural representations of a given molecular structure. Forty-one Algerian undergraduate students were requested…

I describe and evaluate a fun and simple role-playing exercise that allows students to actively work through the process of translation. This exercise can easily be completed during a 50-minute class period, with time to review the steps and contemplate complications such as the effects of various types of mutations.

This article describes two simple classroom demonstrations that illustrate the principles of scanning probe microscopy (SPM) based on a macroscopic analogy. The analogy features the bumps in an egg carton to represent the atoms on a chemical surface and a probe that can be represented by a dwarf statue (illustrating an origin of the prefix…

Nanotoxicity is an area of intense research, stimulated by increased use of nanoparticles in commercially available products. Herein, using nanotoxicity as a platform, we describe an experiment that emphasizes interdisciplinary science in a collaborative work setting while expanding the traditional realm of chemistry and chemistry research.…

A general chemistry laboratory experiment using readily available chemicals is described to introduce college students to an exciting class of nanocomposite materials. In a one-step room temperature synthetic process, magnetite nanoparticles are embedded onto activated carbon matrix. The resultant nanocomposite has been shown to combine the…

We propose an in silico experiment to introduce the classical density functional theory (cDFT). Density functional theories, whether quantum or classical, rely on abstract concepts that are nonintuitive; however, they are at the heart of powerful tools and active fields of research in both physics and chemistry. They led to the 1998 Nobel Prize in…

The hydrogen bonding of phenol can be used as an introductory model for biological systems because of its structural similarities to tyrosine, a para-substituted phenol that is an amino acid essential to the synthesis of proteins. Phenol is able to form hydrogen bonds readily in solution, which makes it a suitable model for biological…

This laboratory exercise introduces undergraduate chemistry majors to the spectroscopic and theoretical study of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH), corannulene. Students explore the spectroscopic properties of corannulene using UV-vis and Raman vibrational spectroscopies. They compare their experimental results to simulated vibrational…

Noby Leong is a PhD student in Chemistry at University of Adelaide working on the design of new drug delivery systems for medical applications. He's also a science communicator, part of the volunteer blogging community at RiAus and curator of his own blog "The Other Side of Science." In this article Noby shares the highs and lows that…

This article describes an interrupted case study that intersperses information about diffusion and osmosis with content review and knowledge application questions, as well as a simple experiment that can be conducted without the use of a laboratory. The case study was developed for use in an introductory undergraduate biology course. The case…

DockoMatic 2.0 is a powerful open source software program (downloadable from sourceforge.net) that allows users to utilize a readily accessible computational tool to explore biomolecules and their interactions. This manuscript describes a practical tutorial for use in the undergraduate curriculum that introduces students to macromolecular…

Skill in organic chemistry nomenclature is fundamental for communicating more complex concepts. Interpreting and using functional group names is particularly important. With nomenclature101.com, students can create tailored interactive quizzes according to their learning needs; the tool is free and available in English and French. The present…

This research revealed that metal ions with different charges could significantly affect the viscosity of aqueous sodium carboxylmethylcellulose (CMC) solution. On the basis of an Ostwald viscometer, an improvised apparatus using a dropping ball for examining the viscosity of liquids/solutions has been developed. The results indicate that the…

A simple and fast experimental method of determining absolute zero temperature is presented. Air gas thermometer coupled with pressure sensor and data acquisition system COACH is applied in a wide range of temperature. By constructing a pressure vs temperature plot for air under constant volume it is possible to obtain--by extrapolation to zero…

A simple low-cost experiment has been developed for the measurement of the binary diffusion coefficients of liquid substances. The experiment is suitable for demonstrating molecular diffusion to small or large undergraduate classes in chemistry or chemical engineering. Students use a cell phone camera in conjunction with open-source image…