This project incorporates the use of UV-VIS spectrophotometers into the chemistry curriculum in order to modify the laboratory emphasis of lower division chemistry and promote student design and conduct of experiments and application of technological tools. Creativity and relevance are improved by coupling an early introduction of spectroscopic instrumentation with biochemical subject matter. Our first goal is to adapt introductory chemistry to involve course content guided by laboratory experimental work in which students, under faculty guidance, design and carry out fundamental chemical exercises (stoichiometry, equilibria, bioseparations, quantitative bioanalysis) with central spectroscopic applications. A second goal is to incorporate biochemical content at the introductory level, and to increase its emphasis at other points outside of formal biochemistry/cell biology courses. A third goal is to increase student knowledge and application of spectroscopy to questions of chemical structure and analysis throughout the chemistry curriculum and with increasing sophistication at the latter stages (fast acquisition kinetics, global spectral analysis, reaction mechanisms), and to increase support for undergraduate research. The two-year project involves all chemistry faculty in the department. The project overall is moving to a course structure built around student or student-team laboratory inquiries integrated with guided discussions led by faculty and, to do so, is adapting methods and procedures developed by the New Traditions Chemistry Initiative, centered at the University of Wisconsin. The project models work published in the Journal of Chemical Education on the importance of the early introduction of spectroscopic principles into the curriculum. The project also adapts a number of methods and experiments found in the Journal of Chemical Education and uses these to create the curriculum-wide emphasis on spectroscopy. New exercises in introductory chemistry, and upper division changes, are being introduced and evaluated starting in the first year and continuing thereafter. Both are being continuously redeveloped based on student responses to the methods and experiences. Introductory chemistry is a core curriculum course, so the changes target science and non-science majors. Science students are expected to be better prepared for higher division classes while generally becoming more technologically competent.
