Ninety-Six Years New
The January 2019 issue of the Journal of Chemical Education is now available online to subscribers. Topics featured in this issue include: chemical biology, innovative curriculum for the classroom and laboratory, promoting effective teaching methods in organic chemistry, improving student conceptual models, cost-effective and low-waste equipment and experiments, using instructional videos to teach, exploring materials science, instrumental analytical experiments, organic chemistry laboratories, research on success in chemistry, from the archives: anodizing.
Editorial
Marcy H. Towns (Purdue University and an associate editor for JCE) invites readers to an international event on February 12, 2019: Coffee, Colleagues, Conversation: Empower Women and Expand Your Network through the Global Women’s Breakfast.
Cover: Chemical Biology
Genetic code expansion (GCE) offers the ability to engineer new protein functions, structures, and interactions using noncanonical amino acids (ncAAs). Despite their utility and foundational roles in recent scientific advances, chemical biology tools like GCE are often left out of undergraduate education. In Unnatural Chemical Biology: Research-Based Laboratory Course Utilizing Genetic Code Expansion, Kelsey M. Kean, Kari van Zee, and Ryan A. Mehl present a research-based laboratory course in which students use GCE to study protein structure and function. The cover shows a general overview of GCE machinery required to site-specifically incorporate an ncAA into a model protein, carbonic anhydrase. With many functionally diverse options for ncAAs and sites for incorporation, GCE is a flexible and versatile tool that is well suited for conducting novel research in an undergraduate teaching setting.
Innovative Curriculum for the Classroom and Laboratory
Chemistry Unbound: Designing a New Four-Year Undergraduate Curriculum ~ Tracy L. McGill, Leah C. Williams, Douglas R. Mulford, Simon B. Blakey, Robert J. Harris, James T. Kindt, David G. Lynn, Patricia A. Marsteller, Frank E. McDonald, and Nichole L. Powell (available to non-subscribers as part of ACS Editors’ Choice program)
Unfinished Recipes: Structuring Upper-Division Laboratory Work To Scaffold Experimental Design Skills ~ Michael K. Seery, Ariana B. Jones, Will Kew, and Thomas Mein
Plants in Medicine: An Integrated Lab–Lecture Project for Nonscience Majors ~ Annette W. Neuman and Brenda B. Harmon
Comparing Industrial Amination Reactions in a Combined Class and Laboratory Green Chemistry Assignment ~ Nimrat K. Obhi, Ian Mallov, Nadine Borduas-Dedekind, Sophie A. L. Rousseaux, and Andrew P. Dicks
Promoting Effective Teaching Methods in Organic Chemistry
Characterization of First-Semester Organic Chemistry Peer-Led Team Learning and Cyber Peer-Led Team Learning Students’ Use and Explanation of Electron-Pushing Formalism ~ Sarah Beth Wilson and Pratibha Varma-Nelson
Developing and Applying Stepped Supporting Tools in Organic Chemistry To Promote Students’ Self-Regulated Learning ~ Jolanda Hermanns and Bernd Schmidt
Improving Student Conceptual Models
Modeling Chemical Reactions with the Gaussian Gun ~ Leslie Atkins Elliott, Elizabeth Sippola, and Jeffrey Watkins
VSEPR-Plus: Correct Molecular and Electronic Structures Can Lead to Better Student Conceptual Models ~ Brian J. Esselman and Stephen B. Block
Using iSpartan To Support a Student-Centered Activity on Alkane Conformations ~ Leyte L. Winfield, Kai McCormack, and Tiana Shaw
Graphical Representation of Hydrogenic Orbitals: Incorporating Both Radial and Angular Parts of the Wave Function ~ Meghna A. Manae and Anirban Hazra
Leading to a Better Understanding of the Particle-in-a-Quantum-Corral Model ~ Rahime Yağmur Ağcalı, Bahar Atik, Ecenaz Bilgen, Berfu Karlı, and Mehmet Fatih Danışman
Cost-Effective and Low-Waste Equipment and Experiments
Conducting a Low-Waste Iodine Clock Experiment on Filter Paper To Discern the Rate Law ~ Luis A. Barrera, Alma C. Escobosa, Laila S. Alsaihati, and Juan C. Noveron
Teaching Boyle’s Law and Charles’ Law through Experiments that Use Novel, Inexpensive Equipment Yielding Accurate Results ~ Taweetham Limpanuparb, Siradanai Kanithasevi, Maytouch Lojanarungsiri, and Puh Pakwilaikiat
Simple and Low-Cost Setup for Measurement of the Density of a Liquid ~ Nima Noei, Iman Mohammadi Imani, Lee D. Wilson, and Saeid Azizian
Reduction of Water Waste in an Organic Chemistry Laboratory Using a Low-Cost Recirculation System for Condenser Apparatus ~ Alex Schoeddert, Keshwaree Babooram, and Sarah Pelletier
Addition to An Easily Fabricated Low-Cost Potentiostat Coupled with User-Friendly Software for Introducing Students to Electrochemical Reactions and Electroanalytical Techniques ~ Yuguang C. Li, Jeremy L. Hitt, and Thomas E. Mallouk
Using Instructional Videos To Teach
Preparing Students for Practical Sessions Using Laboratory Simulation Software ~ Richard A. R. Blackburn, Barbara Villa-Marcos, and Dylan P. Williams
Video with Impact: Access to the World’s Magnetic-Resonance Experts for the Scientific-Education Community ~ Ann H. Kwan, Mehdi Mobli, Horst J. Schirra, Jennifer C. Wilson, and Oliver A. H. Jones
Exploring Materials Science
Introducing Engineering Design and Materials Science at an Earlier Age through Ceramic Cold Casting ~ Alexander J. Boys and Mark C. Walsh
Anodization of Bismuth: Measuring Breakdown Voltage and Optimizing an Electrolytic Cell ~ Thomas Nagel, Casey Mentzer, and P. Mike Kivistik
Exploring the Gel State: Optical Determination of Gelation Times and Transport Properties of Gels with an Inexpensive 3D-Printed Spectrophotometer ~ Mariano Calcabrini and Diego Onna
Instrumental Analytical Experiments
Process Analytical Technology for Online Monitoring of Organic Reactions by Mass Spectrometry and UV–Vis Spectroscopy ~ Patrick W. Fedick, Robert L. Schrader, Stephen T. Ayrton, Christopher J. Pulliam, and R. Graham Cooks
Integrated TGA, FTIR, and Computational Laboratory Experiment ~ Andrew T. Pemberton, D. Brandon Magers, and Daniel A. King
Organic Chemistry Laboratories
Four Step Total Synthesis of an H3 Receptor Antagonist Using Only Tools Found in a Typical Teaching Laboratory ~ Catherine J. Smith, Steven J. Mansfield, Edward A. Anderson, and Jonathan W. Burton
Synthesizing Stilbene by Olefin Metathesis Reaction Using Guided Inquiry To Compare and Contrast Wittig and Metathesis Methodologies ~ Timothy J. Bannin, Partha P. Datta, Elizabeth T. Kiesewetter, and Matthew K. Kiesewetter
Regioselectivity in Hetero Diels–Alder Reactions ~ Carla Grosso, Marta Liber, Amadeu F. Brigas, Teresa M. V. D. Pinho e Melo, and Américo Lemos
Oxidation of 4-tert-Butylcyclohexanol with Swimming Pool Bleach ~ Irene Dip, Christina Gethers, Tonya Rice, and Thomas S. Straub'
Research on Success in Chemistry
Community College Chemistry Coursetaking and STEM Academic Persistence ~ Richard Cohen and Angela M. Kelly
Empirical Study on the Effects of Stationary and Mobile Student Laboratories: How Successful Are Mobile Student Laboratories in Comparison to Stationary Ones at Universities? ~ Michael Budke, Ilka Parchmann, and Marco Beeken
From the Archives: Anodizing
This issue includes an article on the Anodization of Bismuth: Measuring Breakdown Voltage and Optimizing an Electrolytic Cell by Thomas Nagel, Casey Mentzer, and P. Mike Kivistik. The anodizing of other metals has been explored in JCE over the years, including:
Coloring Titanium and Related Metals by Electrochemical Oxidation ~ Emily Gaul
Production of Colorful Aluminum Keepsakes and Gas Sensing Smart Materials: Anodizing, Dyeing, and Etching Small Aluminum Parts on a Budget ~ George N. Harakas
Anodizing and Coloring Aluminum Alloys ~ Craig J. Donahue and Jennifer A. Exline
Anodizing Aluminum with Frills ~ Anne E. Doeltz, Stanley Tharaud, and William F. Sheehan
Anodizing Aluminum: An Electrolytic Oxidation Experiment for General Chemistry ~ Rita G. Blatt
Thousands of Reasons to Explore JCE
JCE is now on its 96th volume, and 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.