"Computer Simulations of Salt Solubility" by Victor M. S. Gil provides an animated, visual interpretation of the different solubilities of related salts based on simple entropy changes associated with dissolution such as configurational disorder and thermal disorder. This animation can help improve students' conceptual understanding of chemical…

Teachers often struggle to excite students about geology, with most young people in today's technology-driven society being unfamiliar with rocks and minerals. Discussions centered on medical geology, the science that studies the link between normal environmental factors and geographical distribution of health problems, may help bridge the gap.…

The 2005 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded "for the development of the metathesis method in organic synthesis". The discoveries of the laureates provided a chemical reaction used daily in the chemical industry for the efficient and more environmentally friendly production of important pharmaceuticals, fuels, synthetic fibers, and many other…

The good, bad and ugly gifts from the mother earth are highlighted. Olive oil, rice seedling blight, and Borrelia burgdorferi, respectively are the good, bad and ugly gifts from the mother earth.

The soil science and soil chemistry is incorporated into teaching materials for earth day and beyond. It revealed some of the chemical properties of the soil through color and texture and the chemical processes relevant to soils abound, including the carbon and nitrogen cycles in the soil, acidification of soils through acid deposition, leaching…

The phenomenon under the name "resonance," which, is based on the mathematical analogy between mechanical resonance and the behavior of wave functions in quantum mechanical exchange phenomena was described. The resonating system does not have a structure intermediate between those involved in the resonance, but instead a structure which is further…

The isotopic distribution in mass spectroscopy is described for identifying pure compounds, being able to distinguish molecular fragments by masses. Punnett squares are familiar, easy to compute, and often graphical which makes helpful to students and the relative distribution of isotopic combination is easily generated for even isotopic…

An interactive environmental science course was designed to provide a set of learning experiences that connect chemistry, geology, biology, physics, and math with the future careers as teachers. The environment deals with many factors contributing with the quality of life, such as the air, the water and the protective shelter of the atmosphere.

The environmental fate and behavior of different organic pollutants based on the qualitative analysis of thermodynamic and kinetic data is presented. The Fugacity model allows the use of different partition constants in an easy way, to determine the distribution of chemical between different phases in equilibrium of an environmental system.

"Curriculum alignment projects, towards developing a need to know", presents an approach to curriculum design that could be considered truly constructive in its format. Successful completion of the project requires students to synthesize a number of concepts that make up the block's learning objectives.

An experiment is described which uses a real-world sample of lawn fertilizer in a simple exercise to illustrate problems associated with the sampling step of a chemical analysis. A mixed-particle fertilizer containing discrete particles of iron oxide (magnetite, Fe[subscript 3]O[subscript 4]) mixed with other particles provides an excellent…

An experiment was performed on polymeric-based controlled-release agrochemicals that minimize leaching into groundwater while maintaining an adequate quantity for the desired agrochemical benefits. Gelatin gel containing inorganic Phosphorous provides controlled-release of an agrochemical where release curves show a linear relationship between…

Several chemical concepts to the extraction of a water pollutant OPC (octylphenoxyacetic acid) is presented. As an introduction to the laboratory experiment, a discussion on endocrine disrupters is conducted to familiarize the student with the background of the experiment and to explain the need for the extraction and quantitation of the OPC which…

The environmentally focused general chemistry laboratory provides a format for teaching the concepts of the mainstream laboratory within an environmental context. The capstone integrated exercise emerged as the overwhelming favorite part of this laboratory and the experiment gave students an opportunity to do a self-directed project, using the…

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…