An Advanced, Integrated Laboratory Course in Chemistry

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In concert with a larger process of academic changes within the Chemistry Department and across the Mount Holyoke College campus, development of a year-long, project-oriented laboratory course in contemporary experimentation is underway. This course introduces students to the application of instrumental and spectroscopic methods to questions about fundamental quantum mechanics; organic, inorganic, biological and solid-state materials; the development of catalytic methods; and biophysical chemistry. In developing the new course, we have built upon curricular experiments on a variety of campuses, many of which were supported by the NSF-ILI program. This support took two forms: funds for a particular instrument that would be used in the integrated lab (e.g., FTIR, #8950694 ; GC/MS, #9451465), or, more rarely, for the development of a range of experiments for introduction into an extant integrated lab course (e.g., #9650638, #9653007). During the three-year development period, the co-PIs are studying integrated lab courses on other campuses (e.g., the NSF-funded courses at Sweet Briar, Guilford, UMD, UNH) and incorporating their successes and lessons. The new course should become a centerpiece of Mount Holyoke's chemistry major, and should provide a secure foundation for thesis research in the senior year.