Chemistry (12) Chromatography is a key method in nearly every subdiscipline of chemistry and in interdisciplinary fields such as pharmaceuticals, forensics, and environmental science. This project is providing students with exposure to and training in the most common separation method, High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). A vertically integrated laboratory curriculum in chromatography is instilling a deep understanding of modern separation science in chemistry and biology students. This coordinated education program is being implemented in five courses: general chemistry, quantitative and instrumental analysis, and two biochemistry labs. These courses span the chemistry and biochemistry major curricula. The project is adapting literature-based experiments in HPLC, mostly from the Journal of Chemical Education, in order to create a coherent program that requires students in the advanced courses to apply their understanding of chromatographic principles learned in the introductory courses. The intellectual and pedagogic merit of the proposed curriculum is that it offers students HPLC experience in two introductory courses: general chemistry and quantitative analysis, and in two advanced chemistry courses: instrumental analysis and biochemistry. Given the structure of the chemistry and biochemistry curricula at the institution, students thus have chromatography experiences in three courses. In the two introductory courses, students in general chemistry explore molecular polarity and examine how it directly influences a modern instrumental analysis, and students in quantitative analysis examine the chromatographic theory applicable to HPLC and carry out student-designed final projects based on analytical procedures from the literature. In the advanced chemistry courses, students in biochemistry use HPLC to purify and characterize a small peptide (first semester lab) and in student-designed projects (second semester lab), and students in instrumental analysis use HPLC in the analysis of capsaicinoids and in student-designed projects that serve as a culminating experience. Of the four courses that are incorporating new HPLC experiences, three either include a final project wholly driven by the student or are completely project-oriented. The broader impacts of this project include providing a cross-curriculum educational program, which is enabling students to learn how separation methods work and also to make connections between different courses and subdisciplines within their major field, producing stronger ties between courses; incorporating modern separation methods and theory into the chemistry curriculum; using modern instruments in student-centered, student-driven projects; implementing a multi-course assessment plan that provides feedback for continued improvement of the teaching and learning in the program, and which is providing new and unique learning experiences for student collaborators involved in the evaluation; fostering collaborations between chemistry and biology faculty in order to provide biology students with strong experiences in chromatography; creating a new environment in which chemists and biologists are collaborating, in both teaching and research; and providing new facilities that are of value in diverse faculty/student research programs.
