JCE 95.01 January 2018 Issue Highlights

Celebrating Ninety-Five Years

The January 2018 issue of the Journal of Chemical Education is now available online to subscribers. Topics featured in this issue include: exploring magnetic properties; examining outreach practices; spectroscopy; understanding chemical changes over time; laboratory curriculum reform; teaching scientific communication; analytical chemistry activities; biochemistry laboratories; 3D printing molecular models; from the archives: chemistry outreach.

Cover: Exploring Magnetic Properties

In Microscale Extraction of Liquid Oxygen from a Cryogenic Mixture Formed through Condensation of Ambient Air, Jeffrey Statler describes a simple and inexpensive demonstration, in which small amounts of liquid oxygen can be safely collected and observed through condensation using a small neodymium magnet. Several techniques are suggested that allow for efficient handling and display of the magnet used for the extraction. The cover shows a small neodymium magnet suspended from the end of a bent paper clip, extracting liquid oxygen from a cryogenic mixture by virtue of its paramagnetism. The cryogenic mixture was collected in 25 minutes via condensation from air into a previously empty test tube as it was partially submersed in liquid nitrogen. Other articles in this issue that explore magnetic properties include:

Synthesizing and Playing with Magnetic Nanoparticles: A Comprehensive Approach to Amazing Magnetic Materials ~ Anne-Laure Dalverny, Géraldine Leyral, Florence Rouessac, Laurent Bernaud, and Jean-Sébastien Filhol

Demonstrating Hund’s Rule in Action by Exploring the Magnetic Properties of Metal Complexes with 3dⁿ and 4fⁿ Configurations ~ Sean N. Natoli and David R. McMillin

Commentaries

Melanie M. Cooper of Michigan State University discusses The Replication Crisis and Chemistry Education Research in her editorial. 

Barbara Cascella and Joseph M. Jez of Washington University examine Beyond the Teaching Assistantship: CURE Leadership as a Training Platform for Future Faculty. 

Examining Outreach Practices

Characterizing the Landscape: Collegiate Organizations’ Chemistry Outreach Practices ~ Justin M. Pratt and Ellen J. Yezierski  (this article is available to non-subscribers as part of ACS’s Editors’ Choice program.)

Spectroscopy

Development of the Flame Test Concept Inventory: Measuring Student Thinking about Atomic Emission ~ Stacey Lowery Bretz and Ana Vasquez Murata Mayo

iSpec: A Web-Based Activity for Spectroscopy Teaching ~ Thomas Vosegaard

Demonstrating Principles of Spectrophotometry by Constructing a Simple, Low-Cost, Functional Spectrophotometer Utilizing the Light Sensor on a Smartphone ~ Bill S. Hosker

Colorimetric Measurements of Amylase Activity: Improved Accuracy and Efficiency with a Smartphone ~ Manchuta Dangkulwanich, Kaness Kongnithigarn, and Nattapat Aurnoppakhun

UV–Vis Spectrophotometric Analysis and Quantification of Glyphosate for an Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Laboratory ~ Daniel E. Felton, Martina Ederer, Timothy Steffens, Patricia L. Hartzell, and Kristopher V. Waynant

A Low-Cost Time-Resolved Spectrometer for the Study of Ruby Emission ~ George C. McBane, Christian Cannella, and Stephanie Schaertel

Understanding Chemical Changes over Time

Analyzing General Chemistry Texts’ Treatment of Rates of Change Concepts in Reaction Kinetics Reveals Missing Conceptual Links ~ Sherry Seethaler, John Czworkowski, and Lynda Wynn

Geometrical Description of Chemical Equilibrium and Le Châtelier’s Principle: Two-Component Systems ~ Igor Novak

Asymmetric Aldol Additions: A Guided-Inquiry Laboratory Activity on Catalysis ~ Jorge H. Torres King, Hong Wang, and Ellen J. Yezierski

Experimental Determination of Activation Energy of Nucleophilic Aromatic Substitution on Porphyrins ~ Waqar Rizvi, Emaad Khwaja, Saim Siddiqui, N. V. S. Dinesh K. Bhupathiraju, and Charles Michael Drain

Laboratory Curriculum Reform

Relating Chemistry to Healthcare and MORE: Implementation of MORE in a Survey Organic and Biochemistry Course for Prehealth Students ~ Lianne Schroeder, Joshua Bierdz, Donald J. Wink, Maripat King, Patrick L. Daubenmire, and Ginevra A. Clark

Teaching Analytical Chemistry to Pharmacy Students: A Combined, Iterative Approach ~ Jinit Masania, Martin Grootveld, and Philippe B. Wilson

Transforming the Organic Chemistry Lab Experience: Design, Implementation, and Evaluation of Reformed Experimental Activities—REActivities ~ Christina G. Collison, Thomas Kim, Jeremy Cody, Jason Anderson, Brian Edelbach, William Marmor, Rodgers Kipsang, Charles Ayotte, Daniel Saviola, and Justin Niziol

From Cookbook to Research: Redesigning an Advanced Biochemistry Laboratory ~ Debra Boyd-Kimball and Keith R. Miller

Teaching Scientific Communication

Preparing Chemistry Majors for the 21st Century through a Comprehensive One-Semester Course Focused on Professional Preparation, Contemporary Issues, Scientific Communication, and Research Skills ~ Anne E. Marteel-Parrish and James M. Lipchock

Stepwise Approach To Writing Journal-Style Lab Reports in the Organic Chemistry Course Sequence ~ Jay Wm. Wackerly

Write My Next Lecture: Prelecture Problem Classes and In-Lecture Discussion To Assist Case-Study Teaching of Synthesis ~ Richard A. R. Blackburn

Analytical Chemistry Activities

Incorporating Student Design in an HPLC Lab Activity Promotes Student Metacognition and Argumentation ~ Ryan S. Bowen, Danielle R. Picard, Susan Verberne-Sutton, and Cynthia J. Brame

Using Photocatalytic Oxidation and Analytic Techniques To Remediate Lab Wastewater Containing Methanol ~ Qing Xiong, Mingliang Luo, Xiaoming Bao, Yurong Deng, Song Qin, and Xuemei Pu

Biochemistry Laboratories

Bisubstrate Kinetics of Glutathione S-Transferase: A Colorimetric Experiment for the Introductory Biochemistry Laboratory ~ Lazaros Stefanidis, Krystal V. Scinto, Monica I. Strada, and Benjamin J. Alper

Biological Interaction of Molybdenocene Dichloride with Bovine Serum Albumin Using Fluorescence Spectroscopy ~ Moralba Domínguez, José E. Cortés-Figueroa, and Enrique Meléndez

Experimental Determination of pK_a Values and Metal Binding for Biomolecular Compounds Using ³¹P NMR Spectroscopy ~ Mason A. Swartz, Philip J. Tubergen, Chad D. Tatko, and Rachael A. Baker

3D Printing Molecular Models

A Simplified Method for the 3D Printing of Molecular Models for Chemical Education ~ Oliver A. H. Jones and Michelle J. S. Spencer

MolPrint3D: Enhanced 3D Printing of Ball-and-Stick Molecular Models ~ Paul J. Paukstelis

From the Archives: Chemistry Outreach

In the article, Characterizing the Landscape: Collegiate Organizations’ Chemistry Outreach Practices (available to non-subscribers as part of ACS’s Editors’ Choice program), Justin M. Pratt and Ellen J. Yezierski examine practitioners’ expected outcomes of outreach events, the types of activities and chemistry content widely practiced, and how outreach practitioners evaluate the success of events. The top three most frequently mentioned activities have been discussed extensively in past issues of JCE:

using liquid nitrogen (including making ice cream)

I Scream, You Scream…: A New Twist on the Liquid Nitrogen Demonstrations ~ Brian P. Coppola, James W. Hovick, and Douglas S. Daniels

The Joys of Liquid Nitrogen ~ William T. Nolan and Thaddeus J. Gish

elephant toothpaste reaction (catalyzed decomposition of hydrogen peroxide)

Demonstration of the Catalytic Decomposition of Hydrogen Peroxide ~ Alfred R. Conklin Jr. and Angela Kessinger

Modified Demonstration of the Catalytic Decomposition of Hydrogen Peroxide ~ Carlos Alexander Trujillo, Edward Senkbeil, and Paul Krause 

the creation of slime (gelation of polyvinyl alcohol with borax)

The Gelation of Polyvinyl Alcohol with Borax ~ E.Z. Casassa, A.M. Sarquis, and C.H. Van Dyke

Using Greener Gels To Explore Rheology ~ Brendan Garrett, Avtar S. Matharu, and Glenn A. Hurst

What's Gluep? Characterizing a Cross-Linked Polymer ~ JCE staff

Thousands of Reasons to Explore JCE 

With well over 1,000 issues of the Journal of Chemical Education to examine, you will always find something useful—including the articles mentioned above, and many more, in the Journal of Chemical Education. Articles that are edited and published online ahead of print (ASAP—As Soon As Publishable) are also available.

Do you have something to share? Write it up for the Journal! For some advice on becoming an author, it’s always very helpful to read Erica Jacobsen’s Commentary. In addition, numerous author resources are available on JCE’s ACS Web site, including recently updated Author Guidelines and Document Templates.