Integrated Guided-Inquiry Laboratories with the use of HPLC Across Undergraduate Chemistry Curriculum

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Chemistry (12) Building on our previous efforts in establishing a laboratory program around the concept of discovery-based learning, we are expanding on this pedagogical perspective by merging lecture and laboratory for our Introductory, Organic, Biochemistry, and Chemical Analysis courses through block scheduling and using an HPLC system networked to adjacent classrooms. Essential to this approach is the rapid acquisition, analysis, and sharing of chemical data collected by students. These tasks are accomplished through the integrated use of contemporary instrumentation such as NMR, UV-VIS, AA and HPLC to expedite analysis and thereby create more time for discovering, thinking, and learning. We are adapting several experiments and methods endorsed by the NSF New Traditions Chemistry Initiative, centered at the University of Wisconsin, and others published in the educational chemical literature, primarily the Journal of Chemical Education. A typical science student's exposure to this integrated format occurs in six different courses, four of which employ HPLC. Because this project features the combined implementation of block scheduling, it provides more opportunity for laboratory inquiries than experienced in traditional scheduling. By repeatedly encountering contemporary instrumentation and the problem-based approach to instruction, students are able to explore various methods of analysis and nurture their independent decision-making role in the experimental process. We plan to disseminate the results from this project locally and to the broader chemical education community by giving presentations at the Biennial Conference on Chemical Education as well as at the local and regional ACS meetings. Results on new laboratory inquiries produced from this project will be also be submitted for publication in the Journal of Chemical Education.