A novel teaching approach is aimed at elucidating the concept of bond enthalpy for general chemistry students. Through the integration of a hands-on candy pulling activity, students in a large lecture class were provided a tangible experience to explore bond strengths using rope candy and a luggage scale. Feedback from students indicated a clear…

We examine students' challenges in determining the number of distinct many-particle stationary states for a system of noninteracting identical particles, focusing on how these insights guided the design, validation, and evaluation of a quantum interactive learning tutorial (QuILT) to aid students' understanding. Specifically, we focus on systems…

Nowadays there is a concern to improve the quality of education by including an interdisciplinary approach of concepts and their integration in the curriculum of scientific disciplines. The development of microbial fuel cells as a potential alternative for production of renewable energies gives undergraduate students the challenge of integrating…

The electrolysis of water to produce hydrogen is a critical step in many green chemistry processes. The key to the efficiency of water electrolysis is the synthesis of an appropriate electrocatalyst. Three-dimensional (3D) printing is an increasingly important part of many industrial processes. In this study, we propose an efficient laboratory…

Organizing undergraduates in chemistry, energy engineering, and chemical engineering specialties to participate in an energy transformation experiment can encourage them to think about the impact of human activities on nature and stimulate them to learn more about the topic. This laboratory experiment demonstrates a general approach to the…

Oxygen reduction reaction (ORR),as a multielectron electrode reaction, is an important electrochemical reaction in the field of electrochemical energy storage systems. Herein, a new advanced electrochemical laboratory experiment is designed for undergraduates to master the preparation of oxygen reduction catalytic electrode. Students can use…

We report the design of a low-cost electrochemical workstation and open-source graphical user interface capable of performing a variety of electrochemical methods in an undergraduate teaching laboratory. The instrument--based on the popular Arduino microcontroller board--can be constructed from common components for $40 USD. The modular design of…

Electrostatic force is the preliminary and fundamental topic that forms the bedrock on which the conceptual framework of "electromagnetism" is built. Being a 'vector' quantity, electromagnetic force naturally inherits direction as well as magnitude. The conceptualization of such physical quantities may pose a challenge. The present work…

While visual representations are generally thought to help students learn chemistry, they can pose conceptual challenges. Arrows are a common visual feature used prominently across various visuals, such as energy diagrams. Although energy diagrams are widely used, research on what challenges arise in the context of energy diagrams is limited. To…

A versatile and portable apparatus was developed to demonstrate exciting visual displays of catalytic phenomena that introduce basic concepts in catalysis, renewable energy, and chemical safety, in order to pique scientific curiosity in a variety of audiences including middle and high school students, undergraduate and graduate students, and the…

Interfacial solar vapor generation has recently drawn much attention because of its high solar-to-vapor generation efficiency. Here we introduce the basic experimental procedures and analysis for undergraduates to perform such an experiment to catch up with the cutting-edge research wave. Interfacial solar vapor generation employs an interfacial…

The chemical experiment is designed for undergraduates majoring in chemistry, energy, and environment. The intended purpose is that the students will comprehend the reaction mechanism of photocatalytic reduction of CO[subscript 2] through hands-on experiments and deepen their understanding of sustainable energy technologies. More importantly, the…

With the benefits of low cost, energy efficiency, and environmental protection, photocatalytic hydrogen production is considered to be the most promising technology for the development of a clean and sustainable society. However, the utilization of photocatalytically generated hydrogen is not very common yet. Therefore, tertiary education urgently…

The challenge of accurately assessing critical thinking in physics education, particularly on topics like work and energy, remains a key issue for educators. The current study aims to address this challenge by exploring students' critical thinking abilities using two-tier test data analyzed through the Rasch model. Data were collected from…

Molecules and Computer: Chemistry Calculations in Class (MC[superscript 4]) is a computational laboratory intended for final-year high school or undergraduate students. The topic is the antioxidant potential of anthocyanidins, which is chemically related to their radical scavenging action via the mechanism of hydrogen atom transfer (HAT). This…