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

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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.