Environmental Chemistry Curriculum Development for a Large Introductory Course

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Students in the freshman chemistry laboratory will be exposed to a variety of chemical principles in the context of environmental chemistry. The goals of the program are three: 1) to interest students in science early in their academic careers, particularly women and minority students; 2) to expose students to real-life issues that chemists face; and 3) to increase both the scientific literacy and the writing skills of all students who participate. The program is module-based, where each module focuses on a specific question that the students must answer about a site of environmental interest. The questions are related to the analysis of drinking water quality, lead deposition near freeways, and toxic waste sites. A "discovery" method of teaching the course will be employed, in which the students will be presented with a question and then must propose answers themselves instead of being presented with a solution. Teamwork and discussion in the area of decisionmaking will also be emphasized. After deciding how they will answer the central question, the students will visit the sites, take samples, and bring them back to the laboratory for testing. A variety of sophisticated techniques will be utilized, including ion chromatography, atomic absorption spectrometry, and gas chromatography. The students will hand in written reports on their work instead of the usual "fill-in- the-blanks" type of form used in many freshman chemistry labs. The final module will consist of independent projects, with the topic chosen by the student. The projects will require the student to use his or her knowledge of sampling, site assessment, laboratory techniques, and writing skills to study an environmental problem and present the results of that study to the rest of the class in a poster session during the final laboratory period. An Advisory Committee and symposium on its findings and products will accompany the project.