The nitration of six benzene derivatives having a range of substituents that differ in electronic effects were followed by GC-MS analyses of the crude reaction mixtures and adapted for the second-year organic laboratory. Students pool their results and identify the products by analyzing the mass spectral data of the isomers and by comparing them…

A fourth-year capstone course offers students an opportunity to integrate topics covered in the core disciplinary courses, to learn an advanced interdisciplinary topic, and to approach unfamiliar problems and literature. This article describes a fourth-year capstone course designed to incorporate components of faculty lectures, student seminars,…

Two concept maps have been developed to represent the organization of the material in a first-semester general chemistry course into two overall themes: a structure and properties theme and a quantitative chemical relationships theme. By providing these maps to students and referring to them in class, it is hoped that the instructor can assist…

We present a laboratory procedure, suitable for high school and undergraduate students, for preparing and studying propane clathrate hydrate. Because of their gas storage potential and large natural deposits, gas clathrate hydrates may have economic importance both as an energy source and a transportation medium. Similar to pure ice, the gas…

This article describes an experiment using a novel gasometric assembly to determine the thickness and number of atomic layers of zinc coating on galvanized iron substrates. Students solved this problem through three stages. In the first stage, students were encouraged to find a suitable acidic concentration through the guided-inquiry approach. In…

This paper outlines several benchtop nanoscale patterning experiments that can be incorporated into undergraduate laboratories or advanced high school chemistry curricula. The experiments, supplemented by an online video lab manual, are based on soft lithographic techniques such as replica molding, micro-molding in capillaries, and micro-contact…

An experiment is described that allows students to experimentally determine an empirical formula for silver sulfide. At elevated temperatures, silver sulfide reacts in air to form silver, silver sulfate, and sulfur dioxide. At higher temperatures (960 [degree]C) silver sulfate decomposes to produce metallic silver. (Contains 1 figure and 1 table.)

Newton's cooling curve was chosen for the four-part laboratory inquiry into conditions affecting temperature change. The relationship between time and temperature is not foreseen by the average high school student before the first session. However, during several activities students examine the classic relationship, T = A exp[superscript -Ct] + B…

In this laboratory experiment, general chemistry students measure the heating curves for three different systems: (i) 500 g of room-temperature water heated by a small desk lamp, (ii) 500 g of an ice-water mixture warmed by conduction with room-temperature surroundings, and (iii) 500 g of an ice-water mixture heated by a small desk lamp and by…

The synthesis of dyes has long been a popular topic in organic chemistry laboratory experiments because it allows students to see first hand that reactions learned in class can be used to make compounds with useful applications. In this experiment electrophilic aromatic substitution reactions are used to synthesize several triarylmethane and…

The use of harmful organic solvents in classrooms has become a critical issue of concern in the field of chemistry education. This article describes a classroom activity at a high school in which an acrylic fabric was used as the extraction medium in the analysis of the detergent concentration in water instead of organic solvents. Dyes were used…

The study of forensic science is found throughout undergraduate programs in growing numbers, both as stand-alone courses as well as specific examples within existing courses. Part of the driving force for this trend is the ability to apply common chemistry techniques to everyday situations, all couched in the context of a mystery that must be…

A high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) laboratory experiment based on the separation of four prescription drugs (disopyramide, lidocaine, procainamide, and quinidine) is presented. The experiment is set within the forensic science context of the discovery of a patient's mysterious death where a drug overdose is suspected. Each lab group…

This article describes a novel, hands-on method to qualitatively determine the extent of microbial activity in topsoil using ordinary blank paper. Appropriate and scalable for the high school and college level, these experiments expose students to some of the challenges facing environmental researchers and also contribute to curriculum development…

In this laboratory experiment, students take environmental samples at various locations around the college campuses, take geospatial coordinates with a global position systems (GPS) unit, and map their results on a geo-referenced campus map with geographical information systems (GIS) software. Nitrogen dioxide air pollution sampling is used as an…