This project entails the purchase of an electron paramagnetic (EPR) spectrometer and its use in undergraduate chemical education. This project is accomplishing the following objectives: (i) enhancing the undergraduate teaching curriculum in individual chemistry-laboratory courses as well as fostering connections between them, (ii) developing novel inquiry-based teaching experiments derived from current scientific research problems, (iii) promoting the participation of undergraduate students as valued team members in cutting-edge research within and beyond the chemistry discipline, and (iv) extending the capabilities of a community outreach program for local grade school science teachers.
The EPR spectrometer that forms the centerpiece of this project is being used in advanced undergraduate inorganic, organic, biochemistry and physical chemistry laboratory courses. EPR spectroscopy is an excellent vehicle for fostering a level of integration by promoting connections between these courses (e.g., synthesis and properties of transition-metal complexes) and the interfaces between chemistry and other sciences such as biology (e.g., the properties of metallo-proteins and investigation of biologically relevant processes). The EPR method is also being used to meaningfully illustrate the concept of electron delocalization within molecules to general-chemistry students. A number of novel research-related inquiry-based teaching experiments are resulting from direct involvement of a wide range of faculty. Additionally this EPR spectrometer is an "undergraduate student-owned" research tool, which is encouraging further participation of undergraduate students in a diversity of interdisciplinary research projects that have EPR as a common intersecting experimental technique. These are the key intellectual merits of the project.
Newly developed teaching experiments are being disseminated via publication in the chemical education literature. The instrument is also used in a hands-on continuing education course for local area grade school science teachers. This course is designed to promote science literacy, and EPR is key to the study of free-radicals and antioxidant compounds relevant to everyday life.
