The molecular modeling was used to reinforce more general skills such as deducing and drawing reaction mechanisms, analyzing reaction kinetics and thermodynamics and drawing reaction coordinate energy diagrams. This modeling was done through the design of mechanistic puzzles, involving reactions not familiar to the students.

A lab rotary experiment using the pH measurements of an aqueous solution to monitor the course of a solvolytic reaction was conducted. This experiment allowed the students to gain experience in taking precise pH measurement, to use nonlinear analysis techniques for analyzing kinetic data and to use the Arrhenius equation for determination of…

Several questions (and answers) regarding the effect of environmental variables on organisms are presented. (RH)

Suggests ways in which the "drinking duck," a seemingly self-propelled duck toy, can be used to illustrate the principles of phase equilibria and thermodynamics. (MLH)

Five brief items are discussed. They include (1) preservation of reactive ions in solid solution, (2) the molecular partition function, (3) purification of methoxychlor, (4) a kinetics experiment, and (5) determining molecular weights of acids. (RWH)

Presented here are improvements in the original design of an introductory statistical thermodynamics experiment with the result that heat capacities of metals are routinely obtained within ten percent of literature values. (BB)

Uses the intersecting parabola model to derive an equation that relates the observed free energy of activation for a slow proton transfer to the overall thermodynamic free energy change in the reaction. (MLH)

Describes an advanced undergraduate experiment in which the stepwise stability constants of hi(II)-cysteine chelate are determined. (MLH)

Discusses the fact that heat only exists at the boundary of a system as energy is being transferred because of a temperature difference between the system and the surroundings. Points out that many texts incorrectly refer to heat as a system component. (MLH)

Outlines a physical chemistry course which is designed for civil engineering juniors and seniors to solve environmental problems. (CC)