The versatile instructional experiences which modern, computer- interfaced spectrophotometers make possible are now available to undergraduate students in chemistry at Coe College. A photodiode ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometer has been recently acquired, which when suitably configured with a personal computer, affords students opportunities to perform experiments utilizing the latest advances in spectrophotometry. The capacity to recall archived data and use third party software to design spreadsheets for performing calculations and plotting spectral data is of pedagogic value in advanced courses that include the study of kinetics, coordination compounds, and the quantitative analysis of complex mixtures.
