Over the past 10 years, there has been a technical revolution in the life sciences leading to the emergence of a new discipline called bioinformatics. In response, bioinformatics-related topics have been incorporated into various undergraduate courses along with the development of new courses solely focused on bioinformatics. This report describes…

By shifting pedagogical goals from obtaining successful mutations to teaching students critical troubleshooting skills, it has been possible to introduce site-directed mutagenesis into an undergraduate teaching laboratory. Described in this study is an inexpensive laboratory exercise in which students follow a slightly modified version of…

A new project-based lab was developed for third year undergraduate chemistry students based on real world applications. The experience suggests that the total analytical procedure (TAP) project offers a stimulating alternative for delivering science skills and developing a greater interest for analytical chemistry and environmental sciences and…

The chemistry version of the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey (CLASS-Chem) is a new instrument designed to measure students' (novices') beliefs about chemistry and learning chemistry compared to those of experts (instructors). This survey is intended to measure the effects of students' beliefs on learning, and to understand how…

A laboratory experiment for undergraduate physical chemistry courses that uses the experimental technique of dielectric relaxation spectroscopy to study molecular mobility in a crystal is proposed. An experiment provides an excellent opportunity for dealing with a wide diversity of important basic concepts in physical chemistry.

We describe an inexpensive device for performing capillary electrophoresis (CE) separations with fluorescence detection. As a demonstration of the device's utility we have determined the mass of riboflavin in a commercially available dietary supplement. The device allows for separation of riboflavin in [asymptotically equivalent to] 100 s with a…

The development of an interactive web-based science information literacy tutorial that introduces undergraduate science majors to basic components of scientific literature is described. The tutorial introduces concepts, vocabulary and resources necessary for understanding and accessing information. The tutorial content is based on the Association…

The utilization of biology research resources, coupled with a "learning by inquiry" approach, has great potential to aid students in gaining an understanding of fundamental biological principles. To help realize this potential, we have developed a Web portal for undergraduate biology education, WormClassroom.org, based on current research…

A three-week laboratory project involving synthesis and characterization of a layered manganese oxide provides an excellent vehicle for teaching important concepts of inorganic chemistry and instrumental methods related to non-molecular systems. Na-birnessite is an easily prepared manganese oxide with a 7 A interlayer spacing and Na[superscript +]…