Analytical Instrumentation for Improving the Environmental Studies Program

来自NSF-ILI项目的资金被用于购买原子吸收分光光度计和带顶空采样器的气相色谱仪/质谱仪的升级。这些新增加的内容使迅速扩大的环境研究项目的科学课程得到了显著的加强，该项目现在与狄金森学院的所有物理和生命科学都有正式的互动。这些改进有利于环境科学、地质和化学等入门课程的非科学专业学生；地质与化学专业、环境研究专业中级、必修课、选修课合格者；并有许多学生在这些学科从事独立研究和实习。该项目的重点是对学生和社会日益关注的环境问题的化学方面进行更深入的研究。具体地说，这个项目将这个分析部分纳入三个层次的更广泛的环境课程：A)在入门级课程中引入更广泛的化学数据。到目前为止，不可能深入讨论和质疑与当地环境退化有关的有毒金属和有机污染物的普遍化学范式，这是大多数实验室/现场工作在这一调查水平上的基础。B)以创新的方式介绍中级水平仪器的理论、操作和局限性。小型的、控制良好的、以课程为基础的环境研究项目正在教授如何制定一个研究项目，并将仪器应用于重要的现实科学问题。C)使用仪器作为独立研究和实习的工具来解决更困难的、自我构想的问题。美国国家科学基金会的拨款正与来自非联邦来源的资金相匹配。

Funds from the NSF-ILI Program are being used for the purchase of an Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer and the upgrading of a Gas Chromatograph/Mass Spectrometer with a Headspace Sampler. These additions allow significant science curricular enhancement to a rapidly expanding Environmental Studies program which now interacts formally with all physical and life sciences at Dickinson College. These enhancements benefit non- science majors in introductory courses in Environmental Science, Geology, and Chemistry; Geology and Chemistry majors and Environmental Studies certificate participants in intermediate-level, required and elective courses; and many students in these disciplines engaged in independent research and internships. Focus of the project is on a more in-depth examination of the chemical aspects of environmental issues of increasingly great concern to students and society.Specifically, this project is incorporating this analytical component into the broader environmental curriculum at three levels: A) Introducing a broader range of chemical data into the introductory level courses. Heretofore, it has been impossible to deepen the discussion and questioning about prevailing chemical paradigms involving toxic metals and organic pollutants associated with local environmental degradation, the basis for most laboratory/field work at this level of inquiry. B) Introducing theory, operation, and limitations of instrumentation at the intermediate level in innovative ways. Small, well controlled, course-based environmental research projects are teaching the process of formulating a research project with the application of instrumentation to important real-life scientific problems. C) Using instrumentation as tools for independent research and internships to solve more difficult, self-conceived problems.NSF grant funds are being matched with funds from non- Federal sources.