An Environmental Analytical Chemistry Course Based on a Local Aquifer

该项目的主要目标是开发环境分析课程，特别强调将原子光谱法，离子色谱法和红外光谱法纳入课程。本课程包括讲座和研讨会，实地考察和采样，实验室分析，并将结果纳入复杂的计算机模型。该课程向学生提出复杂的，现实生活中的，当地的环境问题，他们的研究结果对当地含水层的表征和预测建模做出了重大贡献。 本课程是我们以科学为基础的环境研究项目的中心。项目活动是跨学科的，研讨会式的课程讨论水文地质学，化学分析的方法和仪器，含水层污染的种类和来源，采样方法，实验结果的校准和验证，以及提供当地地下水质量动态图的建模方法。 实验室部分强调当前的仪器方法和适合化学和环境科学高级学习和研究的现代技术。本建议书中描述的新计划是对最初的NSF化学倡议项目之一“建立新的实验室”的改编，该项目以威斯康星州麦迪逊大学为中心。 新的预防项目中概述的几项战略正在实施。 首先，建立跨学科课程的概念，使化学和其他学科之间的重要联系是实验室课程的一个基本方面。 该项目的环境重点提供了现代分析化学和环境科学中包括的其他不同学科之间的桥梁。 第二，实验室项目采用主题导向的方法，处理环境化学中的真实的世界问题，这是新概念项目的目标。 当地含水层的表征和监测的选择为任何学科的学生提供了具有科学，经济和政治意义的焦点话题。

The main object of this project is the development of an environmental analysis course, with specific emphasis on the integration of atomic spectrometry, ion chromatography, and infrared spectrometry into the curriculum. This course includes lecture and seminar, fieldwork and sampling, laboratory analysis, and the incorporation of results into sophisticated computer models. The course challenges students with complex, real-life, local environmental problems, where the results of their study make a significant contribution to the characterization and predictive modeling of a local aquifer. This course is the center of our science-based environmental studies program.The project activities are interdisciplinary, with seminar style classes discussing hydrogeology, methods and instrumentation for chemical analysis, kinds and sources of aquifer pollution, sampling methods, calibration and verification of experimental results, and modeling methods that provide a dynamic map of local groundwater quality. The lab component emphasizes current instrumental methods and modern technologies appropriate for advanced study and research in chemistry and in environmental science.The new program described in this proposal is an adaptation of one of the original NSF Chemistry Initiative projects, "Establishing New Traditions", centered at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Several strategies outlined in the New Traditions project are implemented. First, the concept of establishing interdisciplinary courses to make important connections between chemistry and other disciplines is a fundamental aspect of the lab course. The environmental focus of the project provides a bridge between modern analytical chemistry and the other diverse disciplines included within environmental science. Second, the lab project uses a topic-oriented approach, dealing with a real world problem in environmental chemistry, a goal of the New Traditions project. The choice of characterization and monitoring of the local aquifer provides a focus topic with scientific, economic, and political significance for students in any discipline.