A comparison of the experiences of both organic and analytical lab faculty during the COVID-19 pandemic distance learning initiative is described here. Faculty of both lab courses experienced four shared challenges in the transition to the online format: (1) experimental implementation; (2) assessments and postlab activities; (3) technological…

University of Michigan--Dearborn offers a one semester, two credit, stand-alone Organic Chemistry Laboratory course aimed at students with an interest in health-related careers. The COVID-19 pandemic led to a campus closure and a subsequent transition to a partially remote laboratory curriculum developed on-the-fly for the Winter 2020 semester…

A remote experiment was developed and carried out to create a phenol/water phase diagram using a low-cost automated data collection system and an online video broadcast. Both the data and video from the experiment were transmitted in real-time. The remote lab experiment was evaluated using qualitative and quantitative questionnaires filled out by…

Inorganic phosphors are the main component of light emitting diodes which have caused the revolution in lighting industry as an energy-efficient and long-lasting replacement of traditional incandescent light bulbs and fluorescent tubes. They are also used in various consumer products and displays and can potentially find applications in…

In the field of physics teaching, the simple pendulum provides a very simple way to study the harmonic oscillator, the source of some fundamental concepts such as periodicity, relaxation time and anharmonicity. As such, its experimental study is frequently integrated into high school or first year university programs. With this in mind, in this…

An undergraduate teaching laboratory experiment involving a continuous flow, bleach-mediated oxidation of aldehydes under biphasic conditions was developed that allowed students to explore concepts of mixing or mass transport, solvent sustainability, biphasic reactions, phase transfer catalysis, and continuous flow chemistry.

A set of biochemistry experiments based on the technique of protein colorimetry is described. Students used the Biuret and Bradford assays to qualitatively and quantitatively assess solutions for protein. Two unique features of these experiments are (1) the use of intentional discrepancies within each experiment to promote critical thinking and…

We report here a method that utilizes the vapor pressure of HCl(g) above a concentrated HCl(aq) solution as an extremely simple and safe method to produce small amounts of HCl vapor in an IR gas cell. This vapor pressure approach can also be used to produce DCl(g) by introducing a few drops of concentrated DCl(aq) into the gas cell.

A new laboratory experiment investigating the ternary phase equilibrium of water-propan-2-ol-sodium chloride with one-, two-, and three-phase regions has been developed. Observations of the type and number of phases of a series of mixtures of the three components were made, and the results are then used in a systematic way to more finely choose…

Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) are a revolutionary tool based on a bacterial acquired immune response system. CRISPR has gained widespread use for gene editing in a variety of organisms and is an increasingly valuable tool for basic genetic research, with far-reaching implications for medicine, agriculture, and…

The different reactivities between 1°, 2°, and 3° butyl chlorides by the unimolecular nucleophilic substitution (S[subscript N]1) mechanism were easily observed at 60 °C by a solvolysis reaction in ethanol with ether formation. The hydrogen ion from the byproduct HCl reacted with an acid--base indicator such as methyl red to induce a color change.…

An experiment for the upper-division undergraduate biochemistry laboratory is described in which students investigate the influence of genetic variations of cytochrome P450 1A2 on drug metabolism, using caffeine as a model compound. Saliva samples from human subjects are characterized for a single-nucleotide polymorphism in the CYP1A2 gene…

Disrupting a gene to determine its effect on an organism's phenotype is an indispensable tool in molecular biology. Such techniques are critical for understanding how a gene product contributes to the development and cellular identity of organisms. The explosion of genomic sequencing technologies combined with recent advances in genome-editing…

We present our experience with transferring a four-day photometry and dye-adsorption laboratory experiment to the kitchens of students of Applied Thermodynamics from our degree in "Industrial Chemical Process Engineering". The students designed and built a double-beam photometer using their smartphones and household materials, then…

An organic solar cell fabrication kit has been developed for demonstration in both undergraduate teaching classes and high school laboratories to promote the growing field of renewable energy and to facilitate empirical comprehension of solar technology. The laboratory focuses on fabricating organic photovoltaics (solar cells) and testing the…