CHED 543 |
| A project was undertaken to enhance student experiences in physical chemistry by focusing the laboratory content on a research-rich environment with increased use of research grade instrumentation. Experiments were adapted from the research literature and other sources that focused on nanospheres, hydrogels, living free radical polymerization, Lysozyme, collaborative computational chemistry projects, conformer hunting, and Raman spectroscopy of oxyanions. These experiments used a laser light scattering instrument, a laser Raman spectrometer, and computer modeling software provided by NSF funding as well as existing equipment, and were designed to highlight the lecture content. These new student experiences assisted in creating a deeper understanding of the correlation between structure and function, enhanced their skills in experimental design, and created a research-like approach to their physical chemistry laboratory studies. The “Student Assessment of Learning Gains” assessment tool was used in this work. The author gratefully acknowledges NSF (DUE 0127116) for support of this work. |
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NSF Catalyzed Innovations in the Undergraduate Curriculum
1:00 PM-4:15 PM, Thursday, 14 September 2006 San Francisco Marriott -- Salon A1, Oral
Division of Chemical Education |