The experiment is carried out by high school teachers participating in CICT program as well as undergraduate students using Ocean Optics USB2000+ spectrophotometers.
These spectrophotometers are comparable to research-grade instruments and, when used carefully, allow one to determine
pKa values to within 0.1 unit of literature values. Although the commercially available spectrophotometers provide accurate
data, they largely represent a “black box”2 that provides the user with little insight into the elementary physics associated with spectrophotometry. Additionally, more than 75% of the high school teachers polled stated that the high cost of modern
spectrophotometers was prohibitive for regular classroom use