Improvement of the Chemistry Curriculum and Undergraduate Research with Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy

底特律仁慈大学服务于多样化的学生群体，致力于在本科教育中追求卓越，并认识到需要不断改进本科实验室教学，包括深思熟虑的相关实验和最先进的仪器设备。化学系将购置一台能量色散X射线荧光光谱仪，纳入普通和分析本科实验室课程。提出了这一整合的详细计划。教育部正在教学实验室实施以研究为基础的项目，这些项目将影响几门本科课程，包括将继续攻读理工科专业和职业生涯的大一新生经常参加的普通化学实验室。这些实验本质上是跨学科的，连接了化学和考古学，以及化学和金属材料科学(这非常适合底特律地区，美国汽车工业的大本营)。这台新的光谱仪将显著提高该部门培训其本科生(其中很大一部分是女性和少数族裔)掌握现代分析技术的能力，这些技术对雇主有吸引力。将该仪器添加到本科实验室将吸引更多的学生进入本科实验室，并使这些学生接触到强大的分析工具的使用和理解。

The University of Detroit Mercy serves a diverse student body, is committed to excellence in undergraduate education, and has recognized the need for constant improvement of undergraduate laboratory instruction with well thought out, relevant experiments and state-of-the-art instrumentation. The Department of Chemistry will acquire an energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometer, to be integrated into the General and Analytical undergraduate laboratory curricula. A detailed plan for this integration is set forth. The Department is implementing research-based projects in teaching laboratories that will impact several undergraduate courses, including the general chemistry laboratory routinely taken by freshman students who will go on to science and engineering majors and careers. These experiments are interdisciplinary in nature, connecting chemistry and archaeology, as well as chemistry and the materials science of metals (which is well suited to the Detroit area, home of the nation's automobile industry). This new spectrometer will increase significantly the department's ability to train its undergraduate students, a large percentage of whom are women and minorities, in modem analytical techniques that are attractive to employers. Addition of this instrument to the undergraduate laboratories will attract more students into the undergraduate labs, and expose those students to the use and understanding of a powerful analytical tool.