Customized Laboratory Experience in Physical Chemistry

A new physical chemistry laboratory experience has been designed for upper-level undergraduate chemistry majors. Students customize the first 10 weeks of their laboratory experience by choosing their own set of experiments (from a manual of choices) and setting their own laboratory schedule. There a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of chemical education Vol. 87; no. 12; pp. 1360 - 1363
Main Authors Castle, Karen J, Rink, Stephanie M
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Easton American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc 01.12.2010
Division of Chemical Education, Inc and ACS Publications Division of the American Chemical Society
American Chemical Society
Subjects
Chemistry
College Science
College students
Experiments
Higher education
Laboratories
Learning
Lecture Method
Majors (Students)
Molecular Structure
Organic chemistry
Physical chemistry
Physics
Schedules
Science education
Scientific Concepts
Spectroscopy
Student Interests
Student Projects
Students
Undergraduate Students
Hands-On Learning/Manipulatives
Upper-Division Undergraduate
Laboratory Instruction
Physical Chemistry
Student-Centered Learning
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Summary:A new physical chemistry laboratory experience has been designed for upper-level undergraduate chemistry majors. Students customize the first 10 weeks of their laboratory experience by choosing their own set of experiments (from a manual of choices) and setting their own laboratory schedule. There are several topics presented in the accompanying lecture course that students should explore in the laboratory, but there are generally many good experiments that could be used to help them reach the same learning goals. Students in this laboratory are required to complete at least one experiment from each of several categories but have flexibility in exactly which experiments they will perform. Because the experiments are all designed to be the first introduction of new concepts from the course, they can be performed at any time during the semester and in any order. In the last four weeks of the semester, each student is given the opportunity to extend his or her specific interests by designing and carrying out a special laboratory project.
ISSN:0021-9584
1938-1328
DOI:10.1021/ed1005097