There is little published on whether or not early hands-on exposure to instrumentation has the effect of increasing student success in later courses and/or aids in the retention of students within a course or from semester to semester. Retention is of paramount concern at two-year colleges (2YC) where many students enroll in chemistry classes to only satisfy job or degree requirements, then drop or discontinue taking science courses. The PIs are studying the effect of earlier exposure to an important technology, specifically Fourier Transform Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (FTNMR), on student perception of and attitudes toward science research. The proposed curriculum and laboratory improvement and its concurrent evaluations are contributing to the understanding of the impact of laboratory instruction on 2YC student attitudes toward and success in chemistry, an area of study that is almost untreated in the literature. The Harper College Chemistry Department has a diverse student body with significant populations of underrepresented groups. The PIs are studying the effect of this type of experience in attracting those groups toward the sciences and its effect on the success of transfer students into 4-year programs.
