Analytical Instrumentation for Improving the Environmental Studies Program

来自NSF-ILI方案的资金正用于购买原子吸收光谱仪和用顶空采样器升级气相色谱仪/质谱仪。这些增加使得快速扩展的环境研究项目能够显著增强科学课程，该项目现在与狄金森学院的所有物理和生命科学正式互动。这些改进使非理科专业的环境科学、地质学和化学入门课程的学生受益；地质和化学专业的学生和中级、必修和选修课程的环境研究证书参与者受益；这些学科的许多学生从事独立研究和实习。该项目的重点是更深入地研究学生和社会日益关注的环境问题的化学方面。具体地说，该项目正在将这一分析部分纳入更广泛的环境课程，分三个级别：a)在入门课程中引入更广泛的化学数据。迄今为止，不可能深化对涉及有毒金属和与当地环境退化有关的有机污染物的现行化学范式的讨论和质疑，这是大多数实验室/实地工作在这一层面上进行调查的基础。B)以创新的方式介绍中级工具的理论、操作和局限性。小型的、控制良好的、以课程为基础的环境研究项目正在教授如何通过将仪器应用于重要的现实科学问题来制定研究项目的过程。C)使用仪器作为独立研究和实习的工具，以解决更困难的、自我设想的问题。NSF的赠款资金正在与非联邦来源的资金相匹配。

Funds from the NSF-ILI Program are being used for the purchase of an Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer and the upgrading of a Gas Chromatograph/Mass Spectrometer with a Headspace Sampler. These additions allow significant science curricular enhancement to a rapidly expanding Environmental Studies program which now interacts formally with all physical and life sciences at Dickinson College. These enhancements benefit non- science majors in introductory courses in Environmental Science, Geology, and Chemistry; Geology and Chemistry majors and Environmental Studies certificate participants in intermediate-level, required and elective courses; and many students in these disciplines engaged in independent research and internships. Focus of the project is on a more in-depth examination of the chemical aspects of environmental issues of increasingly great concern to students and society.Specifically, this project is incorporating this analytical component into the broader environmental curriculum at three levels: A) Introducing a broader range of chemical data into the introductory level courses. Heretofore, it has been impossible to deepen the discussion and questioning about prevailing chemical paradigms involving toxic metals and organic pollutants associated with local environmental degradation, the basis for most laboratory/field work at this level of inquiry. B) Introducing theory, operation, and limitations of instrumentation at the intermediate level in innovative ways. Small, well controlled, course-based environmental research projects are teaching the process of formulating a research project with the application of instrumentation to important real-life scientific problems. C) Using instrumentation as tools for independent research and internships to solve more difficult, self-conceived problems.NSF grant funds are being matched with funds from non- Federal sources.