Reorienting organic chemistry laboratories with an emphasis on systemic thinking can only be beneficial to students. Addressing the challenges of climate change and the development of renewable resources with a fundamental reaction, such as the hydrogenation of an alkene, will allow students to see organic chemistry as a science beneficial to…

"Sinorhizobium meliloti" is a bacterium of great agroeconomic importance because of its ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen in symbiotic association with alfalfa ("Medicago sativa") roots, and it is often used in model studies. We investigated the effects of exopolysaccharides (EPSs) in cell-to-cell and cell-to-surface…

Undergraduate laboratory courses, owing to their larger sizes and shorter time slots, are often conducted in highly structured modes. However, this approach is known to interfere with students' engagement in the experiments. To enhance students' engagement, we propose an alternative mode of running laboratory courses by creating some…

We developed a multipart laboratory experiment on the synthesis of free-standing hydrogels for junior to senior undergraduate students. In this experiment series that runs over the course of multiple 3-h lab periods, small everyday objects belonging to the students are reproduced as hydrogels by first creating negative templates in thermally cured…

The advanced organic chemistry experiments describe the preparation of fused six-membered lactams to isoxazole and isoxazoline by employing Ugi four-component reaction (U-4CR) and intramolecular nitrile oxide cyclization (INOC) synthetic sequence. The experiments were carried out in 28 h (overnight for U-4CR) and 2 h (for INOC) using commercially…

A four week laboratory experiment was designed on the basis of a modification of the Weiss-Cook reaction for the preparation of "cis"-1,5-dimethylbicyclo[3.3.0]octane-3,7-dione. In general, this very versatile organic reaction involves a two-step process reacting biacetyl with 2 mol of dimethyl-1,3-acetonedicarboxylate to form…

In the first-year general chemistry laboratory course, instrumental data collection involving sample quantification has often been limited to absorption spectroscopy due to the inaccessibility of emission techniques suitable for large enrollments and novice users. In this laboratory experiment, students explore the complementary techniques of…

Understanding the controls of the oxidation rate of iron (Fe) in oxygenated aquatic systems is fundamental for students of the Earth and Environmental Sciences as it defines the bioavailability of Fe, a trace metal essential for life. The laboratory experiment presented here was successfully developed and used during a third-year undergraduate lab…

Zinc oxide is a common additive in food, cosmetics, and medicines. Here, we describe the validation of methods to analyze two pharmaceutical samples containing ZnO--talc powder and dermal ointment--by ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) titration. The methods developed were implemented as a practical class to students of a Quantitative Analysis…

This paper presents an experimental lab designed for undergraduate students which focuses on soil science and chemistry. Students perform a series of tests to classify soil's phosphate retaining characteristics, texture, pH, organic matter content, and permeability with the addition of a novel soil amendment, Al Mg biochar. This lab has minimal…

Hydrogels are soft water-rich materials with physical properties that can be easily tuned by modifying their network structure. For instance, increasing or decreasing the cross-linking density has a profound effect on their water absorption capabilities and mechanical strength. These physical changes are showcased in a new experiment for organic…

S[subscript N]2 reactions are of fundamental importance in introductory organic chemistry courses, and a number of experiments suitable for the first-semester undergraduate organic lab have been previously reported. Most of these experiments have used alkyl halides as electrophiles, but alkyl halides are often less than ideal for reasons of…

A [beta]-lactam, the core structure unit of clinically important antibiotics such as penicillin and cephalosporin, is one of the most commonly encountered four-membered heterocycles in organic chemistry and is widely used in medicine and biochemistry. The Kinugasa reaction, a copper­(I)-catalyzed cycloaddition of a terminal alkyne with a nitrone,…

Protein engineering represents a modern approach to generate novel proteins for the different fields of biotechnology. Here, we report about an 8-day laboratory activity in which students generate enzyme variants to degrade the herbicide glyphosate. The students conduct a true research experiment in an important field (bioremediation by novel,…

In a classical electronic laboratory, there is an experiment where a diode is connected in a series with a resistor and a variable DC voltage source in order to draw the characteristic I-V curve of the diode. Input voltage is gradually increased starting from 0 V, and the potential difference between the diode's terminals is read by using a…