The Introduction of Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy into the General Chemistry Lab

该项目的目标是将几个普通化学实验室实验与一个中心主题联系起来：每周监测当地地表水中含水金属离子的浓度。目前的普通化学课程已经在学生教育的早期引入了几个流行的主题，以帮助吸引他们的注意力，并展示学习入门材料的相关性。这项提议将把这一概念扩展到实验室，在实验室里，对金属化学浓度的环境监测将吸引学生的注意力。测量这些金属浓度最灵敏的方法之一是原子吸收(AA)光谱。普通化学实验室将增加四个AA光谱仪，每个普通化学学生将在他们普通化学的第一年分别对当地的金属离子浓度进行几次测量。这些数据将由学生在一年中用于个人实验报告，它们还将每周发布到公共访问文件服务器。这个不断扩大的学生成绩数据库将在化学一年级结束时提供给最终的“最终体验”实验室报告，届时每个学生将被要求分析数据，并寻找与当地天气、地形或土地利用有关的结果模式。这些每周的测量结果也将通过文件服务器向所有高年级学生开放，并通过WWW向其他机构开放。增加一门与当地环境问题有明显联系的复杂化学分析，将提高学生对实验室课程各个方面的欣赏和兴趣，并加强与普通化学课程部分的联系。此外，在普通化学水平上获得的数据分析技能将使学生能够在他们的高年级课程中尝试更复杂的分析。

The goal of this project is to link several general chemistry lab experiments to a central theme: the weekly monitoring of aqueous metal ion concentrations in local surface waters. The current general chemistry lecture already introduces several popular topics early in the students' education to help capture their attention and demonstrate the relevance of learning the introductory material. This proposal would extend this concept to the laboratory, where environmental monitoring of chemical concentrations of metals will capture the students' attention. One of the most sensitive ways to measure these metal concentrations is via Atomic Absorption (AA) spectroscopy. Four AA spectrometers will be added to the general chemistry laboratory, and each general chemistry student will individually make several measurements of metal ion concentrations from local sites during their first year of general chemistry. These data would be used by the students for individual lab reports during the year, and they would also be posted on a weekly basis to a public-access fileserver. This constantly expanding database of student results will be available for a final "culminating experience" laboratory report at the end of the first year of chemistry, when each student will be asked to analyze the data and to look for patterns that relate the results to local weather, topography or land use. These weekly measurements will also be available to all upper-class students via fileserver, and to other institutions via the WWW. The addition of a sophisticated chemical analysis with obvious ties to local environmental problems will heighten student appreciation and interest in all aspects of the laboratory course, and strengthen ties to the lecture component of general chemistry. Also the data analysis skills acquired at the general chemistry level will allow the students to attempt more sophisticated analyses in their upper-class courses.