Immersive learning technologies such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and educational digital games offer many benefits to teaching and learning. With their potential to immerse learners in realistic environments and facilitate higher-order cognitive learning, these technologies could be used to complement current classroom…

A variety of strategies have been introduced to tackle the issue of laboratory safety in academic settings. These strategies include innovative educational tools as students transition from the classroom into the laboratory, the introduction of policies designed to protect the researchers in the laboratory environment, and the creation of teams of…

The synthesis of a [2]rotaxane through three- or five-component coupling reactions has been adapted to an organic chemistry experiment for upper-division students. The experimental procedure addresses the search for the most favorable reaction conditions for the synthesis of the interlocked compound, which is obtained in a yield of up to 71%.…

Based on four types of laboratory safety questions (chemical, biological, physical, and medical), a cross-sectional survey of students at Kunming University of Science and Technology (China) was carried out to determine the awareness of laboratory safety among university students. The survey was completed by 335 students in total, with a response…

This essay assessed the chemical safety knowledge of students in the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Tianjin University of Technology, concerning chemical storage, heat operation, waste disposal, and emergency response. The results show that students' familiarity and understanding of safety knowledge is not satisfactory, especially…

High-voltage plasma arcs from solid-state Tesla coils were used to produce characteristic atomic emissions of various metals. The colored arcs produced were highly visible and vibrant, making for a spectacularly engaging demonstration for groups of varying sizes. The demonstration used an inexpensive solid-state Tesla coil to generate low-current,…

Among the tasks that the ACS Committee on Professional Training undertakes is the periodic revision of the "ACS Guidelines and Evaluation Procedures for Bachelor's Degree Programs" (also known as "the guidelines"). Because the guidelines recommend and/or mandate practices for the safe education of undergraduate students,…

Academic institutions are faced with the complex problem of accurately determining the hazards associated with a proposed or ongoing project. For many reasons, compressed gas safety can be a significant challenge at universities, especially those that involve research using many uncommon materials. This article is a call to action for implementing…

Integrating chemical management into a comprehensive emergency operations plan (EOP), including through the creation of a Toxic Materials Annex and a Hazardous Materials Annex, helps improve a school district's or individual school's preparedness for a chemical-related incident. To ensure the annexes remain relevant and useful, districts and…

The chlorination reaction of aromatic compounds is highly important for the synthesis of pharmaceutical products. As the most common chlorination reagent, chlorine is restricted from undergraduate laboratory experiment training due to its toxicity. In this work, we reported the chlorination of aromatic compounds with chlorine generated from the…

A survey of Oregon State University Department of Chemistry personnel revealed that few of the faculty and graduate student respondents (only 6.7% and 8.3%, respectively) reported knowing the location of the automated external defibrillator (AED) nearest their workspace. Furthermore, a minority of both faculty and graduate student respondents…

This paper uses the questionnaire to evaluate the current status of laboratory safety perceptions, willingness, and efforts of first-year undergraduates at the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Tianjin University of Technology. The survey includes a sample size of 360 undergraduates covering four chemistry-related majors. The…

An uptick in online enrollments at higher institutions in recent years serves as the driving force behind an increase in the number of science courses available online. The shift to online science courses introduced a new laboratory environment vastly different from the traditional laboratory, giving rise to doubts on how safe these nontraditional…

The Joint Safety Team (JST) was conceived in 2012 by the Departments of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and Chemistry at the University of Minnesota and the Dow Chemical Company as a model student-led safety organization. The JST initiative was aimed at improving academic safety through four core areas: compliance, awareness, resources,…

Working with undergraduates in an organic synthesis research laboratory presents a unique set of challenges. An undergraduate research program must be designed to focus on teaching students to "think like a chemist" while advancing the principal investigator's scientific agenda. However, as novices in the laboratory, undergraduate…