Encouraging Student Learning and Success
The May 2019 issue of the Journal of Chemical Education is now available online to subscribers. Topics featured in this issue include: microscale precipitation chemistry; making science personal; chemical escape rooms; teaching organic chemistry; peer learning; laboratory assessment; examining cognitive load; inquiry activities; exploring infrared spectroscopy; laboratory experiments; teaching resources; shaking the archives: the blue bottle experiment.
Cover: Microscale Precipitation Chemistry
Microscale and green chemistry methods have a major impact on the general chemistry laboratory experience. Precipitation reactions, once investigated in test tubes, can be performed with as little as two crystals and a 10-drop puddle of water, as described by Bob Worley, Eric M. Villa, Jess M. Gunn, and Bruce Mattson in Visualizing Dissolution, Ion Mobility, and Precipitation through a Low-Cost, Rapid-Reaction Activity Introducing Microscale Precipitation Chemistry. The photo sequence on the cover shows crystals of silver nitrate and potassium iodide, both carried by moistened toothpicks, and brought to the puddle where they can be seen to shrink in size as they dissolve. The ions migrate across the puddle and within 15 s a precipitate of silver iodide starts to form at the interface of the two local solutions. The precipitate continues to develop along the interface. (Photo credit: Peter Stone, Department of Chemistry, Creighton University.)
On ChemEd X: Chad Husting has previously commented on this “puddle chemistry” experiment in his blog post: Misconceptions and Struggles with Double Displacement reactions and dissolving...
Making Science Personal
To encourage the persistence of underrepresented populations in STEM begins in gateway science courses like general chemistry, Stephanie N. Knezz shares her thoughts on Drawing a New Scientist: Why I Come Out to My Chemistry Class.
To show the role of science in our daily lives, Manuel F. Molina and José G. Carriazo explore Awakening Interest in Science and Improving Attitudes toward Chemistry by Hosting an ACS Chemistry FeSTiVAl in Bogotá, Colombia.
Chemical Escape Rooms
The popular genre of “escape rooms” is brought into the chemistry classroom in three articles in this issue, as discussed by Erica Jacobsen in Especially JCE: May 2019:
A Lab-Based Chemical Escape Room: Educational, Mobile, and Fun! ~ Ran Peleg, Malka Yayon, Dvora Katchevich, Mor Moria-Shipony, and Ron Blonder
Escape the Lab: An Interactive Escape-Room Game as a Laboratory Experiment ~ Matthew J. Vergne, Joshua D. Simmons, and Ryan S. Bowen
Escaping Boredom in First Semester General Chemistry ~ David Watermeier and Bridget Salzameda
Teaching Organic Chemistry
Improving College Student Success in Organic Chemistry: Impact of an Online Preparatory Course ~ Christian Fischer, Ninger Zhou, Fernando Rodriguez, Mark Warschauer, and Susan King
Assessment of Student Performance on Core Concepts in Organic Chemistry ~ Naha J. Farhat, Courtney Stanford, and Suzanne M. Ruder
Teaching an Undergraduate Organic Chemistry Laboratory Course with a Tailored Problem-Based Learning Approach ~ Luca Costantino and Daniela Barlocco
Peer Learning
Impact of Peer-Led Team Learning and the Science Writing and Workshop Template on the Critical Thinking Skills of First-Year Chemistry Students ~ Norda S. Stephenson, Imron R. Miller, and Novelette P. Sadler-McKnight
Exploring Peer Instruction: Should Cohort Clicker Responses Appear During or After Polling? ~ Russell J. Pearson
Writing as a Mode of Learning: Staged Approaches to Chromatography and Writing in the Undergraduate Organic Lab ~ Jennifer Clary-Lemon, Rachelle Gervacio, and Devin Latimer
Laboratory Assessment
Survey of Undergraduate Students’ Goals and Achievement Strategies for Laboratory Coursework ~ Stephanie Santos-Díaz, Sarah Hensiek, Taylor Owings, and Marcy H. Towns
Exit Interviews: Laboratory Assessment Incorporating Written and Oral Communication ~ Garland L. Crawford and Kathryn D. Kloepper
Examining Cognitive Load
Looking into the Black Box: Using Gaze and Pupillometric Data to Probe How Cognitive Load Changes with Mental Tasks ~ Jessica M. Karch, Josibel C. García Valles, and Hannah Sevian
Inquiry Activities
Teaching Polymer Theory through the Living Polymerization and Characterization of Poly(methyl methacrylate) and Poly(butyl methacrylate) Homo- and Copolymers ~ W. J. Koshut, A. M. Arnold, Z. C. Smith, Z. M. Wright, and S. A. Sydlik
Collaborative Learning Exercises for Teaching Protein Mass Spectrometry ~ Michelle L. Kovarik and Jill K. Robinson
Introducing NMR Spectroscopy Using Guided Inquiry and Partial Structure Templating ~ Erin M. Kolonko and Kristopher J. Kolonko
Computer-Aided Drug Design for Undergraduates ~ Dean J. Tantillo, Justin B. Siegel, Carla M. Saunders, Teresa A. Palazzo, Phillip P. Painter, Terrence E. O’Brien, Nicole N. Nuñez, Dustin H. Nouri, Michael W. Lodewyk, Brandi M. Hudson, Stephanie R. Hare, and Rebecca L. Davis
A Tale of Two Molecules: How the Heat Capacities of N2(g) and F2(g) Differ At High Temperature and Why Naïve Expectations Fail to Explain These Differences: A Spreadsheet Exercise for Physical Chemistry Students ~ Arthur M. Halpern and Robert J. Noll
Buffer Squares: A Graphical Approach for the Determination of Buffer pH Using Logarithmic Concentration Diagrams ~ Spiros A. Pergantis, Iakovos Saridakis, Alexandros Lyratzakis, Leonidas Mavroudakis, and Tamsyn Montagnon
Evaluation of Mulliken Electronegativity on CH3NH3PbI3 Hybrid Perovskite as a Thought-Provoking Activity ~ Asiel N. Corpus-Mendoza, Paola M. Moreno-Romero, and Hailin Hu
Exploring Infrared Spectroscopy
Inquiry-Based IR-Spectroscopy Activity Using iSpartan or Spartan for Introductory-Organic-Chemistry Students ~ Amy M. Balija and Layne A. Morsch
Developing Students’ Scientific Reasoning Abilities with an Inquiry-Based Learning Methodology: Applying FTIR Spectroscopy to the Study of Thermodynamic Equilibria in Hydrogen-Bonded Species ~ P. G. Rodríguez Ortega, R. Casas Jaraíces, Marta Romero-Ariza, and M. Montejo
Supporting the Teaching of Infrared Spectroscopy Concepts Using a Physical Model ~ Lyniesha C. Wright and Maria T. Oliver-Hoyo
Laboratory Experiments
Isolation and Derivatization of Sucralose from an Artificial Sweetener to Provide a Hands-On Laboratory Experiment Emphasizing Synthesis and Purification ~ Paige J. Monsen and Frederick A. Luzzio
Aqueous Dearomatization/Diels–Alder Cascade to a Grandifloracin Precursor ~ Emily A. Shimizu, Brett Cory, Johnson Hoang, Giovanni G. Castro, Michael E. Jung, and David A. Vosburg
Functionalization of Gold Nanoparticles for a Color-Based Detection of Adenosine in a Bioassay ~ Yoann Roupioz
Inorganic Phosphors for Teaching a Holistic Approach to Functional Materials Investigation: From Synthesis and Characterization to Applications of Thermo- and Mechanoluminescence ~ Paul C. Stanish, Howard Siu, and Pavle V. Radovanovic
Enhancing the Teaching of Corrosion to Chemical-Engineering Students through Laboratory Experiments ~ Javier Llanos, Ángel Pérez, and Antonio de Lucas-Consuegra
Improved Procedure for Bleach-Based Alcohol Oxidation in Undergraduate Laboratories ~ Edon Vitaku and Hamish S. Christie
Teaching Resources
Development and Production of Interactive Videos for Teaching Chemical Techniques during Laboratory Sessions ~ Sarah L. Cresswell, Wendy A. Loughlin, Mark J. Coster, and David M. Green
Using Control Charts Early in the Quantitative Analysis Laboratory Curriculum ~ Dane Scott and Daniel Firth
Overdriven Pulsed Light Emitting Diodes: An Inexpensive Excitation Source for Time-Resolved Luminescence Lifetime Measurements ~ Steven M. Drew, Deborah S. Gross, William E. Hollingsworth, Thomas Baraniak, Christopher M. Zall, and Kent R. Mann
Shaking the Archives: The Blue Bottle Experiment
This issue includes a demonstration by Nicolas Dietrich, Kritchart Wongwailikhit, Mei Mei, Feishi Xu, Francisco Felis, Abderrahmane Kherbeche, Gilles Hébrard, and Karine Loubière that involves Using the “Red Bottle” Experiment for the Visualization and the Fast Characterization of Gas–Liquid Mass Transfer. It is a twist on the popular “blue bottle” experiment, in which a solution containing glucose, NaOH, and methylene blue turns blue when shaken and becomes colorless while standing (a video of this can be seen as part of Michael Morgan’s ChemEd X post Kinetics Review). This demonstration was popularized by J. Arthur Campbell in 1963 as a way to introduce concepts of kinetics, mechanisms, catalysis, and steady-state conditions (Kinetics—Early and Often). Over the years, discussions of and variations on this demonstration have appeared on the cover:
and in the pages of JCE:
The Blue Bottle Experiment Revisited: How Blue? How Sweet? ~ A. Gilbert Cook, Randi M. Tolliver, and Janelle E. Williams
The Blue Bottle Revisited ~ Walter R. Vandaveer IV and Mel Mosher
The Blue Bottle Reaction as a General Chemistry Experiment on Reaction Mechanisms ~ Steven C. Engerer and A. Gilbert Cook
Kinetics of Methylene Blue Reduction by Ascorbic Acid ~ Sarah Mowry and Paul J. Ogren
Greening the Blue Bottle ~ Whitney E. Wellman, Mark E. Noble, and Tom Healy
Out of the Blue (JCE Classroom Activity on the Blue Bottle) ~ Mark E. Noble
Variations on the “Blue-Bottle” Demonstration Using Food Items That Contain FD&C Blue #1 ~ Felicia A. Staiger, Joshua P. Peterson, and Dean J. Campbell
Blue Bottle Experiment: Learning Chemistry without Knowing the Chemicals ~ Taweetham Limpanuparb, Cherprang Areekul, Punchalee Montriwat, and Urawadee Rajchakit (See Erica Jacobsen's Especially JCE: June 2017 for a discussion of this article.)
Greening the Traffic Light: Air Oxidation of Vitamin C Catalyzed by Indicators ~ Urawadee Rajchakit and Taweetham Limpanuparb
Rapid Blue Bottle Experiment: Autoxidation of Benzoin Catalyzed by Redox Indicators ~ Urawadee Rajchakit and Taweetham Limpanuparb
Direct Visualization of Scale-Up Effects on the Mass Transfer Coefficient through the “Blue Bottle” Reaction ~ Patrick M. Piccione, Adamu Abubakar Rasheed, Andrew Quarmby, and Davide Dionisi
What Is Happening When the Blue Bottle Bleaches: An Investigation of the Methylene Blue-Catalyzed Air Oxidation of Glucose ~ Laurens Anderson, Stacy M. Wittkopp, Christopher J. Painter, Jessica J. Liegel, Rodney Schreiner, Jerry A. Bell, and Bassam Z. Shakhashiri
JCE: Encouraging Chemical Education
With volumes of issues to explore, you will always find content that will shake or stir you—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.
Summer is almost here! Please consider submitting a contribution to the Journal of Chemical Education. Erica Jacobsen’s Commentary, Become a Journal of Chemical Education Author, gives great advice on writing for the Journal. In addition, numerous author resources are available on JCE’s ACS Web site, including: Information for Authors and Author Guidelines.