Undergraduate laboratories in Environmental Sciences: Environmental Analysis and Monitoring in an Urban Setting

该项目正在为参与环境研究跨学科计划的理科和非理科专业的学生开发创新的实验室练习。赠款基金正在支持购买带有加热石墨炉的原子吸收光谱仪和扫描分光光度计。这些仪器是围绕波士顿市区和郊区查尔斯河流域的土壤、水和植被的检查和分析而建立的实验室的关键组成部分。实验通过一种非传统的方法向学生介绍科学方法的本质--现场和实验室获取和解释数据，而不是完成“演示”类型的实验室。每个实验包括四个部分：实验设计、现场观察和样品采集、实验室准备和分析以及数据解释。第一年的重点是为非理科专业的学生开发两个学期的自然科学系列实验，以及环境生物学课程，这是环境科学专业的核心课程之一。这两个序列的实验室手册正在编制中，可用作类似项目的模型。该设备还被用于支持环境科学、生物学和地质学专业的实验室练习和自主学习项目的修改。

This project is developing innovative laboratory exercises for science and non-science majors involved in an interdisciplinary program in Environmental Studies. Grant funds are supporting the purchase of an atomic absorption spectrometer with heated graphite furnace and a scanning spectrophotometer. These instruments are key components of laboratories built around the examination and analysis of soils, water, and vegetation of the Charles River Basin in urban and suburban Boston. Experiments introduce students to the nature of the scientific method with a non-traditional approach--the field and laboratory acquisition and interpretation of data, rather than the completion of "demonstration" type labs. Each experiment includes four components: experimental design, field observation and sample collection, laboratory preparation and analysis, and data interpretation. Emphasis in the first year is on developing experiments for a two semester natural science sequence for non-science majors and for an Environmental Biology course which is one of the core courses for the Environmental Science major. A laboratory manual for both sequences is being produced which can be used as a model for similar programs. The equipment also is being used to support the modification of laboratory exercises and independent study projects for majors in Environmental Science, Biology, and Geology.