Enhanced Science Education Through the Use of Modern FTNMR Spectroscopy

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This project will enhance science education through innovative use of an FTNMR Spectrometer at Whitworth College. Education students and lower division science students will be enabled to more concretely grasp chemical principles through hands-on experience with this powerful technique. More sophisticated experiments will also be carried out by chemistry majors. A unique feature of the proposal is the emphasis on collaborative efforts between science faculty and education faculty. Prospective K-12 teachers and other students with relatively limited chemistry background will carry out NMR laboratory exercises geared to their level. In these experiments, students will identify common chemical structures and follow the course of a metabolic pathway through the use of FINMR. K-12 teachers will carry out similar experiments in summer workshops hosted jointly by Whitworth faculty in the science and education departments. Participants in the workshops will be encouraged to bring their students back to the campus for "laboratory field trips" focused on the NMR spectrometer which will be located prominantly within the newly remodeled Eric Johnston Science Center. Chemistry students will also benefit tremendously from the project. These students will be introduced to practical use of the spectrometer in their very first laboratory courses. They will use the spectrometer to identify reaction products generated in small quantities and to monitor the course of chemical reactions. Upper division chemistry students will gain the background necessary to carry out more. sophisticated experiments. They will identify stereoisomers of a coordination complex, analyze the intricacies of an enzyme-catalyzed reaction, and utilize multi-pulse lD and 2D NMR techniques to determine the structures of monoterpenes. Finally, the spectrometer will also stimulate faculty- directed undergraduate research projects.