Chemistry (12) The goal of this project is to integrate FT-NMR spectroscopy into the chemistry curriculum at Saint Vincent College beginning with General Chemistry and culminating in a capstone research experience for the senior chemistry undergraduate students. The project's objectives are to enhance student learning and problem solving skills and to prepare students to benefit from the senior research experiences. To achieve our goal, we are adapting a number of mini-projects and/or project-based experiments from the Journal of Chemical Ed. and from other resources across our entire chemistry curriculum. Students in General Chemistry use H-NMR in conjunction with CAChe molecular modeling to study mono-, di-, and tri-substituted halomethanes, which is an adaptation of the experiment published in the Journal of Chemical Education. The complexity of the NMR experiments increases as students proceed from the general chemistry to the senior level in which advanced 1-D and 2-D techniques are introduced. We have chosen the Anasazi EFT-NMR upgrade for our project because students can obtain both one- and two-dimensional spectra rather easily. The project impacts approximately 100 STEM majors annually, including chemistry majors and teacher preparation students. It is our hope that the project-based laboratories will enhance student learning, foster critical thinking, and prepare students for their senior research experience. We intend to disseminate the results from our project to the chemical education community through ACS conferences and meetings and submitting articles to the Journal Of Chemical Education.
