ABSTRACT: An experiment published in this Journal has been revisited and it
is found that the curve pattern of the anodic polarization curve for iron repeats
itself successively when the potential scan is repeated. It is surprising that this
observation has not been reported previously in the literature because it
immediately brings into question the long accepted and well-known
explanations involving a passive film. A qualitative and plausible explanation
is provided from surprisingly simple principles for this new finding. Some
important pedagogic conclusions have been derived from this work. It is
noteworthy that the somewhat complicated phenomenon can be simply
explained, thus providing two important lessons to students. First, even wellaccepted
scientific work studying simple processes may be incomplete and
worthy of further study, and second, such processes may be explained simply at
the undergraduate level. The contents of the paper also confirm that presenting
curricular contents in a new and more correct manner is beneficial, interesting, and that research in curricular contents represents one of the important forms of educational research.
KEYWORDS: Graduate Education/Research, Upper-Division Undergraduate, Physical Chemistry, Misconceptions/Discrepant Events,Problem Solving/Decision Making, Electrochemistry