Developing Ocean Literacy to Understand Ocean Acidification
At the Virtual Human Interaction Lab (VHIL) at Stanford University, I created a mini unit on ocean acidification. This curriculum is divided into three main sections.
Drug Development: Discovering a Novel Antibiotic
Groundbreaking cancer drug research is happening at pharmaceutical companies such as Acerta (a small pharmaceutical company owned partly by the large AstraZeneca) everyday.
Finding Chemo: Robot Modeling of Chemotaxis
All living things need to obtain materials in order to stay alive. Chemotaxis is the directed movement towards or away from a chemical stimulus. In many cases, chemotaxis is a matter of life or death, so sensing and acting on feedback from the environment is a crucial life function.
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Mom! Dad! Why Can’t You Leave Me Alone?
In this lesson, “Why Can’t You Leave Me Alone?” students explore the selective pressures that led to the evolution of parenting behavior in Dentrobatidae, or Poison Dart Frogs.
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Catalysts and Enzymes: Making Life Happen
This lesson is about catalysts. Catalysts speed up chemical reactions without being used up. The principles of catalysis are important in industrial processes, environmental remediation, and most importantly, sustain all of life through diverse biological processes.
Into the Blue Investigation
Into The Blue Investigation is a hands-on collaborative lab activity where students use their knowledge of chemistry and the scientific method to determine the reactants, products and type of a chemical reaction.
Make it Faster!
Reactions are vital to human functions and synthesis of materials. Sometimes reactions happen too slowly, so a catalyst is introduced to speed the reaction along. Sometimes reactions don’t happen easily so a catalyst is introduced to make the reaction occur.
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Photoelectric Effect for Introductory Chemistry Course
EXtreme Environment Systems Lab (XLab) develops systems for operation within extreme harsh environments. Researchers in the XLab investigate the synthesis of temperature tolerant, chemically resistant and radiation-hardened wide bandgap semiconductor thin films and nanostructures.
Preparation and Combustion of Biodiesel. An Inquiry-Based Chemistry Laboratory
In this lesson, the students develop a synthesis to make biodiesel from vegetable oils. Students convert canola oil, a common vegetable oil found in kitchen, to biodiesel. The conversion involves a transesterification reaction of a triglyceride with methanol to produce biodiesel and glycerol.