Integrating research into the undergraduate environmental chemistry curriculum at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey

CHED 515

Kristen A. Hallock-Waters, watersk@stockton.edu, Louise Sowers, Louise.Sowers@stockton.edu, Raymond Mueller, Ray.Mueller@stockton.edu, and Tait Chirenje, Tait.Chirenje@stockton.edu. Division of Natural Science & Mathematics, The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, 195 Jimmie Leeds Road, Pomona, NJ 08240
The Richard Stockton College is a public liberal arts college located 50 miles southeast of Philadelphia and adjacent to the New Jersey Pinelands National Reserve and the Mullica River/Great Bay Estuary, one of the last relatively pristine watersheds along the U.S. mid-Atlantic coastline. The College's location provides unique teaching and environmental research opportunities. Through support from the National Science Foundation CCLI Program, Chemistry and Environmental Studies faculty have developed an undergraduate Environmental Chemistry curriculum which incorporates research on the Pinelands ecosystem into undergraduate courses and provides on-going student research opportunities. Students are monitoring air quality and local precipitation chemistry, evaluating nutrient loading and algal productivity in a Pinelands lake, and monitoring physical and chemical changes in the aquifers supplying the College's geothermal well field. Participating students have been surveyed by an external evaluator and responses suggest that students generally feel the laboratory experiences enhance their learning.

The author gratefully acknowledges NSF (DUE 0311527) for support of this work.