Environmental Chemistry Curriculum Development for a Large Introductory Course

大一化学实验室的学生将接触到环境化学背景下的各种化学原理。该计划的目标有三个：1)让学生在学术生涯的早期就对科学产生兴趣，尤其是女性和少数族裔学生；2)让学生接触化学家面临的现实问题；3)提高所有参与学生的科学素养和写作技巧。该课程是基于模块的，每个模块都侧重于一个特定的问题，学生必须回答有关环境利益的地点。这些问题与饮用水质量分析、高速公路附近的铅沉积和有毒废物场址有关。本课程将采用“发现”教学方法，即向学生提出一个问题，然后学生必须自己提出答案，而不是向学生提供解决方案。在决策领域的团队合作和讨论也将被强调。在决定如何回答中心问题之后，学生们将访问这些地点，采集样本，并将它们带回实验室进行测试。各种复杂的技术将被利用，包括离子色谱法，原子吸收光谱法，和气相色谱法。学生们将提交关于他们工作的书面报告，而不是通常在许多新生化学实验中使用的“填空”形式。最后一个模块将由独立的项目组成，主题由学生选择。这些项目将要求学生运用他或她的抽样知识、现场评估、实验室技术和写作技巧来研究一个环境问题，并在最后的实验期间以海报的形式向班上其他同学展示研究结果。一个咨询委员会和关于其调查结果和产品的专题讨论会将伴随该项目。

Students in the freshman chemistry laboratory will be exposed to a variety of chemical principles in the context of environmental chemistry. The goals of the program are three: 1) to interest students in science early in their academic careers, particularly women and minority students; 2) to expose students to real-life issues that chemists face; and 3) to increase both the scientific literacy and the writing skills of all students who participate. The program is module-based, where each module focuses on a specific question that the students must answer about a site of environmental interest. The questions are related to the analysis of drinking water quality, lead deposition near freeways, and toxic waste sites. A "discovery" method of teaching the course will be employed, in which the students will be presented with a question and then must propose answers themselves instead of being presented with a solution. Teamwork and discussion in the area of decisionmaking will also be emphasized. After deciding how they will answer the central question, the students will visit the sites, take samples, and bring them back to the laboratory for testing. A variety of sophisticated techniques will be utilized, including ion chromatography, atomic absorption spectrometry, and gas chromatography. The students will hand in written reports on their work instead of the usual "fill-in- the-blanks" type of form used in many freshman chemistry labs. The final module will consist of independent projects, with the topic chosen by the student. The projects will require the student to use his or her knowledge of sampling, site assessment, laboratory techniques, and writing skills to study an environmental problem and present the results of that study to the rest of the class in a poster session during the final laboratory period. An Advisory Committee and symposium on its findings and products will accompany the project.