Describes the construction of a Tesla coil using a car coil and presents various experiments for which it can be used. (JRH)

Provides an introduction to the problem of the aging of paper and the conservation techniques that currently are being employed in paper preservation. (MKR)

Discusses the misconception that salts are completely ionizing in solution, the presence of this error in textbooks, probable origins of the error, covalent bonding and ion pairs, and how to tell students the truth. (MKR)

Discusses the solubility of a salt in water taking into account the acid-base reactions of the anion. Considers the simultaneous calculation of the solubility and pH of a saturated solution. Presents applications of this method. (MKR)

Presents instructions and one game board to play Jeopardy in chemistry class. (MKR)

Presents four mistakes made with students and four criteria for developing student independence and responsibility, namely student ownership, student-active learning, student accountability, and student control. Discusses the method of student-directed learning (SDL), the role of emotions in learning, course modification for SDL, and results of…

Discusses two students' discovery that both of their answers to a computation for E in a chemical reaction in electrochemistry were correct, that there was not a unique answer, and that the textbook had presented only one of the possible answers to the problem. (MKR)

Presents an alternative way to teach chemistry by using transmuted laboratory activities in which students must predict outcomes within a certain error factor. Includes nine sample labs. (MKR)

Describes how to do electrical conductivity demonstrations that result in glowing pickles, onions, potatoes, cabbage, and grapefruit and how to devise a safe device to hold them. (MKR)

Extends the work of Weimer and Battino in electrical conductivity demonstrations creating "glowing" vegetables (see article this issue) to other vegetables and the spectra generated by other elements other than the sodium in pickle brines. Describes a study on the effect of concentration and voltage on glow intensity. (MKR)

Presents an experiment to demonstrate the temperature influence on creation of an inclusion complex in which beta-cyclodextrin is the host molecule and phenolphthalein is the guest. (MKR)

Presents suggestions for alternative presentations of some of the material that usually forms part of the introductory chemistry course. Emphasizes development of concepts from experimental results. Discusses electronic configurations and quantum numbers, experimental evidence for electron configurations, deducing the shell model from the periodic…

Presents an alternative approach to bonding and geometry--the electron domain model--which avoids some of the problems with the conventional approach. Discusses difficulties with the orbital model at the introductory level, electron spin and the Pauli exclusion principle, electron pair domains, nonequivalent domains, multiple bonds, and origins…

Shows how ionization energies provide a convenient method for obtaining electronegativity values that is simpler than the conventional methods. Demonstrates how approximate atomic charges can be calculated for polar molecules and how this method of determining electronegativities may lead to deeper insights than are typically possible for the…