Building Instrumental Competence to Support Student Independence in the Laboratory

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The chemistry department at Gustavus Adolphus College is engaged in a project to shift its pedagogical focus to include a graduated approach to student instrument usage, particularly in the first two years of the undergraduate curriculum. Project implementation in freshman and sophomore chemistry courses centers around hands-on use of GC-MS and ICP-MS, IR, UV/Vis, fluorescence, and NMR spectrometers. A key element of implementing this graduated approach is the acquisition of a 400 MHz spectrometer with autosampling capability to facilitate the incorporation of NMR usage through the early undergraduate chemistry curriculum. Another key element is the development of an assessment system to guide the implementation and to measure the impact of the intervention on students' readiness for independent research. In order to study the impact on students, the project is making use of the Classroom Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) survey as well as a separate questionnaire exploring confidence, experimental design and problem-solving abilities in research, and the amount of undergraduate research in which the students are engaged. In addition, students' understanding is being assessed via a lab practical and course-taking patterns and enrollment will be examined. External evaluators are facilitating an internal development team to develop the validity of these measures and the evaluators are examining institutional data as well as reviewing the other assessment approaches. Dissemination includes the development and implementation of a workshop through the Midstates Consortium of Science and Math for faculty of 13 higher education institutions, presentations at local and national undergraduate science education forums, and papers published in chemical education venues.