Lab-based learning is an essential part of any undergraduate chemistry curriculum as it incorporates necessary and required hands-on experiential learning. However, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many students are learning from home, rendering laboratory instruction a particular challenge. Options for educators include third party virtual…

There is a growing movement to involve undergraduate students in authentic research experiences. A variety of studies have indicated the strength of this approach in developing scientific aptitude, confidence, critical thinking skills, and increasing the likelihood to become career scientists. Course-based undergraduate research experiences…

Adsorption of methylene blue and malachite green was carried out using "Luffa cylindrica" sponges as adsorbing material. We provide a very illustrative exercise about the use of common natural materials requiring little preparation to solve environmental tasks in a routine laboratory situation such as using dyes. In addition, the…

To inspire upper-division undergraduate students to gain a deeper understanding of biorefinery, an experiment related to biofuels and lignin-based sunscreen products from corncob was performed in multiple offerings of a summer-semester class. Specifically, corncobs were pretreated with 1% H[subscript 2]SO[subscript 4] to obtain hemicellulose…

Reported herein is a multidisciplinary laboratory experiment for advanced undergraduate students that includes elements of material synthesis, in the synthesis of cyclodextrin-containing metal-organic frameworks (CD-MOFs), and environmental chemistry, in the use of these MOFs for pollutant removal. This multiday laboratory experiment starts with…

This practical is aimed at students who have been introduced to the tableting process, drug delivery systems, and dissolution. The student can design and manufacture a tablet investigating the effect of excipients and their role in tablet design and then generate a release profile of the tablet by using a dissolution apparatus, flow-through cell,…

A one-pot regio- and stereoselective synthesis of a dipyrromethane and a bis(indolyl)methane based on two consecutive reactions of nitrosoalkenes with pyrrole or indole, respectively, is described as an experiment to be carried out by upper-division undergraduate students in a laboratory classroom. Importantly, the ability of electrophilic…

Environmental pollution is both a worldwide and a local issue, and microplastic pollution in particular is receiving increased attention due to its prevalence and bioaccumulation potential affecting the food chain. This laboratory experiment uses current, research-based methods such that the students can determine the extent of microplastic…

An ordinary soap bubble immersed in a pure carbon-dioxide atmosphere, created e.g. by sublimating chunks of dry ice (solid CO[subscript 2]), will expand within a few minutes to a volume exceeding the original one with a factor of almost ten. Considering that the bubble simultaneously experiences a cooling of ~30 ?C one would perhaps expect a tiny…

A rudimentary level of scientific literacy is necessary in the general public. At the undergraduate level, this literacy can be achieved through general education courses offered in areas of natural sciences. Over the past several years, practical courses have been developed to make the teaching of chemistry concepts in the laboratory more…

Instrumentation plays a critical, ubiquitous role in modern chemistry. The undergraduate chemistry curriculum must therefore cultivate students' ability to investigate chemical phenomena via relevant instruments. The instructional laboratory serves as the primary context in which undergraduates learn about instrumentation, where use of instruments…

Catalysis and catalytic cycles are widely used in both research and industry. The addition of a catalysis experiment into the undergraduate laboratory curriculum is important and necessary training to expand student learning. Here, an experiment demonstrating iron-based tandem catalysis was developed and implemented in an organic chemistry course…

To remain globally competitive, education in the United States must focus on retaining students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). As laboratory courses have the potential to be powerful attractors or deterrents to a field, developing effective laboratory pedagogies is important to retain students in STEM. A course-based…

Photochemical synthesis, in which light is used as an indispensable reagent, is recognized as a green technique for organic synthesis and has been paid extensive attention. In this laboratory experiment for chemistry classes, a photoinduced C-C coupling reaction is introduced, which can be conducted under mild conditions at room temperature.…

Categorizing the various levels of protein and nucleic acid structures is a relatively straightforward concept students understand quickly when shown representative structural images. However, keeping in mind the idea of primary, secondary, and tertiary structure proves more difficult when students are in the laboratory setting simply looking at a…