Improvement of the Chemistry Curriculum and Undergraduate Research with Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy

底特律大学拥有多元化的学生群体，致力于提供卓越的本科教育，并认识到需要通过深思熟虑的相关实验和最先进的仪器不断改进本科实验室教学。化学系将获得一台能量色散x射线荧光光谱仪，整合到普通和分析本科实验室课程中。提出了此集成的详细计划。本系正在教学实验室中实施一些以研究为基础的项目，这些项目将影响几门本科课程，包括将继续攻读理工科专业和职业的大一学生经常参加的普通化学实验室。这些实验本质上是跨学科的，结合了化学和考古学，以及化学和金属材料科学（这非常适合底特律地区，美国汽车工业的发源地）。这台新的光谱仪将大大提高该系培养本科生的能力，使其掌握对雇主有吸引力的现代分析技术，其中很大一部分学生是女性和少数民族。将此仪器添加到本科实验室将吸引更多的学生进入本科实验室，并使这些学生能够使用和理解一个强大的分析工具。

The University of Detroit Mercy serves a diverse student body, is committed to excellence in undergraduate education, and has recognized the need for constant improvement of undergraduate laboratory instruction with well thought out, relevant experiments and state-of-the-art instrumentation. The Department of Chemistry will acquire an energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometer, to be integrated into the General and Analytical undergraduate laboratory curricula. A detailed plan for this integration is set forth. The Department is implementing research-based projects in teaching laboratories that will impact several undergraduate courses, including the general chemistry laboratory routinely taken by freshman students who will go on to science and engineering majors and careers. These experiments are interdisciplinary in nature, connecting chemistry and archaeology, as well as chemistry and the materials science of metals (which is well suited to the Detroit area, home of the nation's automobile industry). This new spectrometer will increase significantly the department's ability to train its undergraduate students, a large percentage of whom are women and minorities, in modem analytical techniques that are attractive to employers. Addition of this instrument to the undergraduate laboratories will attract more students into the undergraduate labs, and expose those students to the use and understanding of a powerful analytical tool.