A chemistry laboratory experiment is described to introduce undergraduate college students to membrane separation technology. This experiment combines a simple nanowire membrane fabrication and visually indicated molecule separation. The membrane is produced via coprecipitation synthesis followed by a filtration assembly process, which can be…

The ability to reason with representations is pivotal for successful learning in Organic Chemistry and is closely linked to representational competence. Given the visual nature of this discipline, this comprises competency in extracting and processing relevant visual information. With regard to the resonance concept, proficiency in identifying…

Valence shell electron pair repulsion theory (VSEPR) as explained in most textbooks predicts that substituents bonded to a central atom in AX[subscript n]E[subscript z][superscript c] species (A = main-group central atom, X = substituent, E = lone pair on central atom, c = charge) will change their X-A-X angles to bend away from the lone pairs.…

Education in organic chemistry is highly reliant on molecular representations. Students abstract information from representations to make sense of submicroscopic interactions. This study investigates relationships between differing representations: bond-line structures, ball-and-stick, or electrostatic potential maps (EPMs), and predicting partial…

A new teaching resource comprised of raw X-ray diffraction data sets from crystallography experiments has been compiled. The aim of this resource is to provide a tool with which to plug the teaching gap between crystals and chemical structures present at various levels of education, as well as providing examples for early stage researchers and…

Biochemistry students at the introductory level easily comprehend the importance of energy-yielding oxidation and reduction biochemical processes, but nevertheless, they fight with words "oxidation" and "reduction" (and with the corresponding adjectives, "oxidized" and "reduced") applied in biochemistry…

Organic molecules are invisible objects, but they can be visualized and manipulated by using molecular models. The object-based learning (OBL) approach, which is an educational tool developed for museums and collection items, is tailored and applied to a first-year bachelor course of organic chemistry. At the beginning of the course, each student…

The NMR spectrometer is a commonly used spectroscopic instrument that records resonance frequencies of nuclei present in molecular systems. While the NMR frequencies fall within the radio frequency regime for a given molecular system, they are presented in terms of chemical shifts in the audio frequency regime, thereby having the versatility to be…

Magnetic molecular models help students explore molecular structures and interactions. In this study, we investigated how pairs of students used magnetic models to explore hydrogen bonding and the 6-fold symmetry of snowflakes. Fourteen first-year students enrolled in a chemistry unit participated in pairs. Students' interactions with the magnetic…

The great development of high-throughput molecular biology techniques and the consequent generation of massive data have made Bioinformatics essential for undergraduate Bioscience students. The importance of this scientific discipline is evidenced by the huge number of specialized publications, tools, and databases available. Training in…

Representations in chemistry are the tools by which students, instructors, and chemists reason with chemical concepts that are abstract. Although representations are regularly used within the chemistry classroom, there is more to uncover regarding the ways students interact with representations when given chemistry tasks. This study aimed to…

Single-molecule localization microscopy (SMLM) has revolutionized our ability to visualize cellular structures, offering unprecedented detail. However, the intricate biophysical principles that underlie SMLM can be daunting for newcomers, particularly undergraduate and graduate students. To address this challenge, we introduce the fundamental…

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…

The yellow-blue color pair has been used in creative artwork such as paintings and designs and in color engineering. Herein we present a method for using the yellow-blue combination in a chemistry lesson dealing with [pi]-conjugated molecules for first-year undergraduate students who are not science majors. The lesson begins with an introduction…

Chemistry and biochemistry instructors must help students to develop the ability to visualize and manipulate 3D biomolecular structures and critically analyze them and their relationship to their functions. To do this, representative systems must be strategically selected to stimulate students' motivation. Since the World Health Organization…