A low-cost simple one-dimensional spring-mass system was constructed to investigate damped oscillations. The suspended mass in the system can move freely inside a cylinder containing a fluid. It provides an in-depth experience for demonstrating various concepts under oscillations. It can be used to probe the magnitude of damping forces in liquids…

The chemistry laboratory is an impactful platform for introducing inquiry and developing science practice skills. We designed a short lab course to introduce incremental levels of inquiry, also to interconnect and integrate different domains of chemistry. Indigo dye was the central theme of this short course wherein students synthesized indigo,…

Polymer chemistry is an important subject in the undergraduate chemistry curriculum. It is required for ACS-certified degrees and significantly connects to real world issues like the plastic waste crisis. While some concepts of polymer chemistry can be incorporated into lecture courses, students' understanding of material properties and…

4-"tert"-Butylcyclohexanol is rapidly converted to 4-"tert"-butylcyclohexanone with swimming pool bleach in a homogeneous reaction at room temperature. This process introduces students to a heterocyclic compound not normally discussed in the introductory course and has significant advantages over standard procedures using…

The separation of suspensions and immiscible liquids by the laboratory centrifuge is widely used in such fields as chemistry, biology, biochemistry, and clinical medicine. In this paper, an Arduino-based microcentrifuge was fabricated using a computer DVD (digital versatile disc) drive. The hardware part consisted of inexpensive mechanical and…

Instructive, inexpensive, and environmentally friendly laboratory syntheses of two highly luminescent copper(I) complexes CuI(PPh[subcript 3])[subscript 2](py[superscript R]) (py[superscript R] = pyridine, 4-cyanopyridine) are described for second-year/upper-division undergraduate inorganic chemistry students. Both complexes exhibit bright…

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…

A low-cost multispectral imager was built using a multiwavelength LED PCB (light-emitting diode printed circuit board), 3D printed housing, and a monochrome camera, and it was controlled via National Instruments LabVIEW software coupled with some simple electronics. Multivariate data analysis was performed using freely available software packages.…

We present the use of an oxygen tolerant controlled radical polymerization (photoinduced electron/energy transfer-reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer polymerization, PET-RAFT) as a simple method for preparing controlled radical polymers in an undergraduate laboratory. Unlike conventional techniques, PET-RAFT polymerizations require no…

Dendrite growth affects material systems across applications as diverse as lithium batteries, organic light emitting diodes, turbine blades, and biological sensors. Their unique crystal structure and ability to physically see growth make for a unique undergraduate laboratory experience. This experiment uses dendrite growth to explore the physical…

We report a simple means to build a model atomic force microscope (AFM) using 3D printing of thermoplastic materials that are commercially available. The model has many of the key parts of an actual AFM including a z-axis stage, an AFM head with a cantilever assembly, and a laser source that reflects off of the back of the cantilever. Using a…

[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Instructional labs: Improving traditions and new directions.] Physics instructional labs have long been an area of pedagogical innovation and educational research. While current stakeholders in instructional labs are undoubtedly aware of the day's concerns, reform efforts, and empirical research…

As teaching laboratories stand empty in light of COVID-19, we extended the practical experience from the laboratory to the safety of the students' homes. We developed a simple, robust, and versatile at-home experiment that teaches solution preparation, calibration curves, real-life sample preparation, and data analysis to second-year analytical…

The identification of coloring substances is a relevant task in the field of conservation and restoration, but it can be challenging as in real samples the target analytes are inserted in a very complex matrix made of binders and additives. Understanding this concept is fundamental for upper-division undergraduate students interested in…

Student feedback from an undergraduate biochemistry lab course suggested the use of visibly traceable proteins may assist learning. Based on this feedback, we used guided inquiry lab exercises where students developed and characterized a suite of fluorescent protein-dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) fusions as tools for a biochemistry teaching lab.…