New scientific instruments have been recently acquired by the Physical Sciences and Mathematics Department at Mount St. Mary's College. These include an ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometer, a gas chromatograph (GC) with a micro preparative assembly, a high performance liquid chromatograph (HPLC), and an atomic absorption (AA) spectrometer. This instrumentation is being used to update the curriculum in the undergraduate laboratories by providing students hands-on experience with analytical techniques where lecture presentations have often sufficed in the past. A major curriculum component being developed is that involving the role of the computer in data acquisition and treatment, with important applications in Instrumental Analysis as well as in the Physical and Honors General Chemistry laboratory courses.
