Chemistry-related software, or chemistry "apps", on hand-held and portable touch-controlled computers such as smartphones and iPods are seeing dramatic growth with increasing adoption rates. This review covers about 30 popular and mostly free apps that can be used to learn chemistry and to serve as reference or research tools. The target…

Household water treatments (HWT) can help provide clean water to millions of people worldwide who do not have access to safe water. This article describes four common HWT used in developing countries and the pertinent chemistry involved. The intent of this article is to inform both high school and college chemical educators and chemistry students…

This paper provides nine short chemically based puzzles or problems extensible for use with students from middle school to college. Some of these will strengthen students' recognition of individual elements and element names. Others require students to focus on the salient properties of given chemical elements.

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…

Provides a short history of the comic book. Discusses several comics and notes how chemistry was involved. Selects science fiction, chemical facts, rocketry, and educational comics as areas for study. Includes drawings as examples of each area. (MVL)

Describes how to make the following paper molecular models: trigonal prism; tetragonal pyramid; tetrahedral; and trigonal pyramid. Methodology is given for general paper model manipulation to make various shapes including a chain of tetrahedra and an icosahedron. (MVL)

Describes the peat to coal process. Investigates the organic, inorganic, and sulfur components of coal. Outlines how varying percentages of each are formed. (MVL)