Enhancing Chemistry and Biochemistry Education with Gas Chromatography - Mass Spectrometry

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The project involves acquisition of a gas chromatography-mass spectrometer (GC-MS) to provide all students hands-on experience with a central instrument used in industrial and graduate school research laboratories. It also involves development of instruction and courseware to engage students in problem solving and methods development. The project is allowing students to investigate familiar materials, such as perfumes, and be exposed to some of the strategies of analysis and mass spectral interpretation. Upper-level students are also solving problems and developing new methods of analysis. For example, in the Instrumental Analysis course, students are handling real-world samples in complex matrices as they develop methods for analysis of mycotoxins in rice and corn. In biology courses, students are characterizing small protein molecules that have been implicated in mechanisms of resistance of plants to pathogens. The project is preparing undergraduates to enter the modern-day instrumental laboratory competently and confidently and heightening student enthusiasm and interest in chemistry.