A method to provide students a vision of how they can write iteration programs on an inexpensive programmable pocket calculator, without requiring a PC or a graphing calculator is developed. Two iteration methods are used, successive-approximations and bisection methods.

An approach that is useful to any introductory nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy course is developed. This approach to teaching NMR spectrometry includes spectral simulation along with the traditional elements of hands-on instrument use and structure elucidation to demonstrate the connection between simulating a spectrum and structure…

A guide for teachers in school to make teaching chemistry in a more interesting way is given. Practical experience not only facilitates the student's own learning, but also helps them to see how teachers can influence the next generation of students.

A description of the three fundamental elements of a good research story- the theoretical framework, the methodological framework and the guiding research questions- is given and the process by which the choice of theoretical framework is made is examined.

A question and answer session on whether Lavoisier made an agreement with the French mathematician, Comte Joseph-Louis Lagrange shortly before being beheaded that he would blink his eyes if he retained consciousness after being beheaded and that he was executed because of his revolutionary scientific views is described. The circumstances…

An attempt is made to find a solution to the occasional problem of a need for storing large numbers of graduated cylinders in many teaching and research laboratories. A design, which involves the creation of a series of parallel channels that are used to suspend inverted graduated cylinders by their bases, is proposed.

The specific types of chemical information appropriate for nonscience majors are described. The requirement of a practical use for the chemical information used in the assignment reduced students perception of the assignment as busy work and, more importantly, focused on the information that the students might find useful long after they complete…

The methodology of compiling an academic genealogy using the Internet and computer technology is described. Details on the use of the Internet both to gather information and to make the results available are provided.

A two-minute overhead demonstration using a molecular model kit is employed for illustrating the unique binding of cyclopropane. It is reported that most model kits, much like an sp (super 3) hybridized carbon atom, resist forming 60-degree bond angles.

Exfoliated-compressed graphite materials are examined. A chemical explanation for the pseudo-exfoliation phenomenon is proposed.

Surface tensions gradients were generated in a thin liquid film because of the local increase in temperature, for demonstration purposes. This is performed using a simple experiment and allows different alternatives for heat generation to be used.

The calculations of uncertainties in the formula or molar masses of compounds are streamlined. Three rules of increasing complexity are proposed, which overestimate the uncertainty so there is little if any risk that the true values are missed.

The attempt to develop the laboratory component of a one-semester quantum chemistry course at Saint Mary's University has led to allowing the students to solve a big problem in quantum chemistry. It is done by subdivision into smaller problems that can be independently tackled by a student with a two-year calculus background.

It is presented that only simple concepts, mainly taken from activated-complex or transition-state theory, are required to explain and analytically describe the influence of pressure on gas-phase reaction kinetics. The simplest kind of elementary gas-phase reaction is a unimolecular decomposition reaction.

A one-semester course is described which directly responds to the challenge that the scientific community addresses the question that the level of science literacy to the large number is small. It is designed for bright, highly motivated students who have only a basic high school background in chemistry and who have no plans for taking any more…