This chemistry project (Discipline Code 12), adapted from one at Western Carolina University, increases student-learning opportunities through the addition of inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICPOES) in chemistry, environmental science, and environmental engineering. Incorporation of ICPOES provides students with sufficient analytical capabilities to facilitate environmental inquiry, equips them with needed technological understanding, and builds critical scientific skills. Use of ICPOES enhances student participation in discovery-based experiments in air and water contamination, metal cycling in wetlands, and sediment studies. ICPOES facilitates projects such as the determination of Pb and Cd in rivers, and As and Cr in seafood. In addition, ICPOES promotes undergraduate research in arsenic speciation in soil and plant material, and the determination of air-borne metals. Project results are disseminated through pedagogical journals, online via a website, and at regional and national meetings.
