Full Integration of Classroom and Laboratory in a First Year Chemistry/Materials Course

在过去的七年里，伦斯勒开发了一个课程序列，材料化学，它结合了传统的普通化学和材料科学与工程的基础课程，面向所有工程专业的大一新生。目前，本课程的教学模式正在由传统的讲授-背诵模式转变为强调学生在学习过程中积极参与的互动工作室模式。实验室和课堂材料之间的联系是直接的，课堂材料的实际相关性是显而易见的。这种整合的一个障碍是缺乏可以在两个小时的互动会话中进行的实验，而这种交互会话占据了这种方法的大部分课堂时间。在这个项目中，一系列的实验将被设计为占用30-50分钟的课堂时间，并将强调发现基本原理，而不是验证先前阐述的原理。这个项目的成功完成将导致实验室和课堂材料的整合，并将最大限度地提高学生在学习过程中的积极参与。

Over the past seven years, Rensselaer has developed a course sequence, Chemistry of Materials, that combines material from traditional General Chemistry and beginning Materials Science and Engineering courses that is taught to all engineering freshmen. Currently, the format of this course is being changed from the traditional lecture-recitation format to an interactive studio format, which emphasizes the active involvement of the student in the learning process. The connection between the laboratory and classroom material is made directly, and the practical relevance of the classroom material is made immediately obvious. A barrier to this integration has been the lack of experiments that can be performed within the two-hour interactive sessions that occupy the bulk of class time in this approach. In this project a series of laboratories will be designed to occupy 30-50 minutes of class time, and will emphasize discovery of basic principles, rather than verification of a previously enunciated principle. Successful completion of this project will result in the integration of laboratory and classroom material and will maximize the active involvement of the students in the learning process.