second-year undergraduate

Why Take Chemistry for Mortuary Science? Part 1

Kathleen Carrigan | Mon, 02/22/2021 - 22:35

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Community colleges offer associates degrees in mortuary science and Chemistry for Funeral Service or similar type courses are typically part of the associates degree curriculum. This post is written primarily for faculty who may advise students in this career path. This post (Part 1) will discuss a few reasons why taking chemistry is important for students pursuing a career in mortuary science.

Service Dogs in the Chemistry Lab

Melanie Harvey | Sun, 02/21/2021 - 20:20

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Service animals will continue to become more common in chemical laboratories. It is important that chemistry faculty and departments are prepared to safely accomodate students with service dogs in laboratory courses.

Learning to Walk Before Running a Marathon

Francisco Villa | Mon, 02/15/2021 - 13:25

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What would be a useful infrastructure to help modernize undergraduate labs and perhaps give students more experience/skills- especially those serving student populations with low socio-economic status? This blog offers a practical solution.

Zoom Study Hall: Time and Place for Students to Study Online

Thomas Cox | Fri, 02/12/2021 - 18:32

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Think back to when most college students across the country were on campus working together on group projects and studying together in the library. So how can this be recreated now that online instruction is the current operational mode? One solution may be Study Hall over Zoom.

A Simple Method to Determine the Number of Lone Pairs on a Hypervalent Central Atom

Joseph Lomax | Wed, 02/10/2021 - 16:21

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Teaching about hypervalent structures is problematic. This post discusses a simple and quick way in determining the number of lone pairs on a hypervalent central p-block atom.

Program Evaluation Part 1 – My Evaluation Experience

Clarissa Sorens... | Tue, 01/05/2021 - 10:45

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Evaluations are part of everyday life and professional work. This multi-part blog series aims to expand upon the collective understanding of the kinds of evaluations. This, the first post, begins with personal experience with the common kinds of evaluations.

JCE 97.12 December 2020 Issue Highlights

Mary Saecker | Sun, 12/27/2020 - 14:17

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The December 2020 issue of the Journal of Chemical Education is now available online to subscribers. Topics featured in this issue include: teaching during COVID-19; examining models used by students; chemical structure; game-based learning; interdisciplinary courses; teaching chemistry using plants; laboratory instruction with real-world context; fluorescence; exploring spectroscopy; thermodynamics; chemical education research; from the archives: photography.

Organic Chemistry and Tree Fruit: The Control of Ethylene-Induced Ripening of Fruit in Cold Storage Warehouses

T. Ross Kelly | Sat, 12/19/2020 - 11:35

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Ethylene, C₂H₄, a volatile plant hormone stimulates fruit ripening and is also released during ripening. This post explains the role of ethylene in ripening and presents how the chemical identity of the ethylene scavenger used to suppress premature ripening during storage was determined.

Aqueous red cabbage extracts: More than just a pH indicator

Iain Smellie | Wed, 09/02/2020 - 09:35

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The use of anthocyanins in red cabbage extracts as pH indicators has long been a popular classroom activity. Flowers, fruits and vegetables contain a diverse range of anthocyanins. This investigation explores further applications of plant-derived dyes including reversible reactions based on oxidation/reduction chemistry and other reactions to illustrate colour changes that are not solely dependent on pH change. By using household materials and plant dyes, this investigation may potentially be completed at home if necessary.

Online Labs and the Question of the Relevance of the Lab Curriculum

Clarissa Sorens... | Thu, 07/16/2020 - 19:10

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This is the first of three consecutive blogs about online labs. This first blog centers on the question, "Is chemistry laboratory coursework still relevant?" The second and third blogs discuss if the lab curricula we currently use is achieving our goals and if lab coursework can be effectively moved to an online platform.