Improvements in Freshman Chemistry Laboratory Instruction

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Computers located at student stations within freshman chemistry laboratories are being used in three ways: sophisticated data acquisition and analysis, distribution of locally produced digital video clips of faculty research related to each experiment being done by the students, and electronic distribution of locally produced instructions for each experiment (text, diagrams, photos, and digital video clips). The overall goal is to make freshman chemistry students believe that they are doing chemistry the way professional chemists do and not just learning material that many of the students have already seen in high schools. The introduction of the digital video clips of research not only shows that the freshman chemistry experiments are important and relevant to `genuine chemistry,` but it also gives the department an opportunity to show how the same techniques that are taught in freshman chemistry laboratory courses are an essential part of extremely important chemical research.