An Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer/Graphite Furnace for an Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Environmental Science Program

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This department stresses a program of quantitative training to help undergraduates develop skills necessary for biologists and environmental scientists in the next decade. A Perkin-Elmer 5100 Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer-Graphite furnace (AA-GF) system with Zeeman background correction is facilitating instruction in Biology Department programs, including Environmental Sciences, Toxicology, Microbiology, and Botany, and is encouraging development of more interdisciplinary undergraduate courses and projects. The AA and GF are essential tools for the quantification of metals in a variety of matrices. Projects have been designed in five courses to instruct students in the theory, advantages, limitations, and proper uses of AA and GF. Instrumentation maintenance and quality control/quality assurance procedures are an integral part of all courses and projects. Student projects involve use of the AA and, where appropriate, the FA as detectors of metal contaminants in water, soil/sediments, biological fluids, tissues, and air. They also are used to measure bioaccumulation of metals in terrestrial/greenhouse studies and to monitor the levels of toxic metals added to tissue cultures for chronic and acutetoxicity testing. Research and development of new methods for use of the GF and AA should give complete instruction of uses, advantages, and limitations of these tools. The grantee institution is matching the NSF award with an equal sum obtained from non-Federal sources.