Millions of people do not have access to clean drinking water; thus, cost-efficient water treatment systems are vital. Chemists, environmentalists, technicians, and engineers will be the professionals making breakthroughs in this industry. This laboratory experiment aims to introduce undergraduate students to the removal of pollutants from water…

It may be asserted that there is no more effective deterrent to crime than the certainty of detection. Equally true is that there is no surer way to establishing identity than by fingerprints. The detection of fingerprints at the scene of crime is therefore one of the most powerful tools available in casework investigations. However, if the crime…

Chemical kinetics is a branch of physical chemistry that constitutes an essential part of undergraduate education. In general, a complex and expensive experimental apparatus is indispensable for observing the kinetics of a chemical process owing to the continuity of chemical reactions. Thus, intuitive visualization of the chemical kinetics using a…

The climate emergency is a source of anxiety for many young people. Images of drought, heat waves, wildfires, storms and flooding are increasingly appearing in the media. Today's children stand to be the recipients of our legacy of climate change, while not feeling empowered to do anything about it, so perhaps it is no wonder they are anxious.…

With the enormous reliance on plastics in the world today, bisphenol A, an additive used in the synthesis of many plastics, such as polycarbonate, has been found almost everywhere in our environment including in soil, in natural waters, and inside organisms including humans. A multidisciplinary experiment is presented that involves using flatworms…

Students determine the iron mass in dietary supplements using four colorimetric assays. These colorimetric assays were selective for Fe[superscript 3+]. It was complexed by thiocyanide, salicylate, gallic acid, and Fe(CN)[subscript 6][superscript 4-], forming blood-red, red, violet, and blue complexes, respectively. The [lambda][subscript max] of…

Technically simple and extremely cheap setups for colorimetric and fluorimetric analyses using a smartphone camera are presented. Laboratory activities on digital colorimetric and fluorimetric analyses for students of secondary and higher educational institutions are proposed, namely, photocolorimetric determination of acetylsalicylic acid in…

The conical pendulum is a classic introductory physics problem for teaching circular motion--a topic about which students frequently carry alternative conceptions. As teachers provide lessons to untangle these conceptions, it is good to allow students to practice their new knowledge in varied settings. This is one possible experiment that builds…

We present a modernization of the undergraduate physical chemistry laboratory experiment for determining the speed of sound in various gases from resonant frequencies in a spherical resonator. The resonator (schematic IR = 7.5 cm) is constructed by 3D printing with eco-friendly poly(lactic acid), a commercially viable alternative to traditional…

We present a sequence of two physics experiments, designed for use with secondary students, which investigate the specific heat of sand, both qualitatively and quantitatively, without a calorimeter. We use two LM35 temperature sensors and an Arduino prototype board for data acquisition. The results are good and allow teachers to discuss the…

"N"-Formamides are important intermediates in the synthesis of many pharmacologically active compounds and are used as protecting groups for amines or as catalysts in different reactions. The current "N"-formylation experiment is designed as a part of an introductory organic chemistry course for undergraduate students. The…

We describe a series of three experiments in which students develop a model system for measuring the LC50 of household substances, using grass seed as the model organism. Students use statistical methods to compare two samples (using chi-square and Student's "t"-tests), conduct a two-level multifactor experiment to look at multiple…

A laboratory activity is described for senior high school or first year undergraduate level students that illustrates key concepts linked to extractive metallurgy. This experiment demonstrates preferential binding of a methoxyphenolic oxime ligand to Cu[superscript 2+] in the presence of other transition metal ions in aqueous solution. The…

For the past century, humans have been increasingly dependent on plastics, but have not developed adequate disposal practices. In this lab, students are asked whether burning plastic for energy seems like a reasonable disposal technique. To answer the chemical aspects of this question, students use bomb calorimetry to quantify the combustion…

Chemists have always designed and deployed cross-disciplinary approaches that interface chemistry with other disciplines to proffer solutions to many human problems. We designed a laboratory experiment that implements chemistry concepts in a biological model to prime undergraduate students to appreciate interdisciplinarity as an approach to…