Development of an Instrument-Based Environmental Laboratory Course

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An instrument-based environmental laboratory course entitled: ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS ANALYSIS will be developed in this project. It is a core course to be offered by the newly established Bachelor of Applied Science (BAS) program in Environmental Systems. This new BAS program provided the students with an understanding of the techniques for quantitative description on environmental phenomena, the technologies for environmental control, and the laboratory skill for environmental analysis. The proposed course will achieve the last objective of the program. It will be offered to upper level undergraduates. A key element in the course is the experiments to be performed by students that directly relate to the topics covered in two other core courses: one deals with treatment technologies for environmental control, and the other deals with mathematical modeling of environmental systems. Meanwhile, students will learn to operate modern laboratory instruments/equipment through classroom lectures (2 hrs/week) and hand-on laboratory exercises (3 hrs/week). This represents a significant departure from traditional environmental laboratory courses, which tend to only emphasize laboratory skills, Student will perform eight experiments in this course. In addition, a laboratory safety session will be offered prior to laboratory experiments to equip students with necessary knowledge for safety precaution and hazard prevention. The materials covered will be suitable for a one-semester course. The instruments/equipment requested will be suitable to accommodate for up to 20 students in a class. The instrument/equipment requested will allow student to perform reliable and accurate experiments thereby maximizing the benefits offered by such a course. Results and experience obtained through development of this course will be disseminated via publications of journal articles and presentations at conferences. Ultimately, a monograph on the subject will be published.