This post describes a simple way to generate blue, green, orange, and yellow copper complexes, and to use these complexes to introduce students to the effect of temperature on chemical equilibria. The protcol avoids the use of caustic agents, allowing the experiments to be conducted by students as a laboratory-based investigation.
Infrared technology (FLIR Cameras) can be used to investigate intermolecular forces.
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.
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.
If you only have a few weeks of in-person labs this fall semester, consider this lab content reorganization.
With the school year quickly approaching, science teachers will at some point need to decide the role of laboratory investigation within their new learning environment. To help this decision-making process, the author focuses on two available options that he believes have the greatest potential for offering a legitimate approach toward authentic investigations in a digital environment.
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.
This unique microscale gas collection technique provides students with reasonably good data in a short period of time. Students have more time to analyze the data and communicate their findings.
Before trying to use a piece of equipment, it’s worthwhile to have a basic understanding of how it works. To put it simply, FLIR cameras primarily deal with the infrared part of the EMR spectrum. The camera detects infrared energy and converts it into an electrical signal, which is then processed to produce a thermal image on a video monitor.
Two groups of students, typically, have difficulty with titrations, the first time around. Those that act too rashly and overshoot the endpoint, and those over-cautious ones who they take forever to finish.
