This study reports the development of a 19-item Flame Test Concept Inventory, an assessment tool to measure students’ understanding of atomic emission. Fifty-two students enrolled in secondary and postsecondary chemistry courses were interviewed about atomic emission and explicitly asked to explain flame test demonstrations and energy level diagrams. Analysis of students’ explanations offered insight into students’ alternative conceptions and was used to design items and distractors for a 19-item Flame Test Concept Inventory about atomic emission. Results from a pilot study with first-year university chemistry and with upper-division chemistry students were analyzed to create a final version of the inventory that was administered to both secondary students (N = 459) and first-year university students (N = 100) who had completed formal instruction and course assessment about atomic emission. Analysis of student responses indicated the inventory generated valid and reliable data. Common alternative conceptions about atomic emission that remain postinstruction and their prevalence are discussed.

The large class sizes of first-year chemistry labs makes it challenging to provide students with hands-on access to instrumentation because the number of students typically far exceeds the number of research-grade instruments available to collect data. Multifunctional chemical analysis (MCA) systems provide a viable alternative for large-scale instruction while supporting a hands-on approach to more advanced instrumentation. This study describes how the capabilities of MCA systems are extended to introduce liquid chromatography (LC) and flow injection analysis (FIA) in undergraduate laboratories. A semi-micro plastic cuvette with a Teflon tubing insert is fashioned as the flow cell for a MCA absorbance− fluorescence detector. Two MCA systems, Vernier and MeasureNet, are used in two unique experiments demonstrating the detection of salicylate in aspirin tablets by FIA and the LC separation of a mixture of riboflavin and fluorescein. Both instruments, composed of a syringe pump, T-injection valve, and the MCA detector, operated in the kinetic mode, are rugged and inexpensive permitting student construction, if desired.