Funds from the NSF-ILI Program are being used for the purchase of an Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer and the upgrading of a Gas Chromatograph/Mass Spectrometer with a Headspace Sampler. These additions allow significant science curricular enhancement to a rapidly expanding Environmental Studies program which now interacts formally with all physical and life sciences at Dickinson College. These enhancements benefit non- science majors in introductory courses in Environmental Science, Geology, and Chemistry; Geology and Chemistry majors and Environmental Studies certificate participants in intermediate-level, required and elective courses; and many students in these disciplines engaged in independent research and internships. Focus of the project is on a more in-depth examination of the chemical aspects of environmental issues of increasingly great concern to students and society.Specifically, this project is incorporating this analytical component into the broader environmental curriculum at three levels: A) Introducing a broader range of chemical data into the introductory level courses. Heretofore, it has been impossible to deepen the discussion and questioning about prevailing chemical paradigms involving toxic metals and organic pollutants associated with local environmental degradation, the basis for most laboratory/field work at this level of inquiry. B) Introducing theory, operation, and limitations of instrumentation at the intermediate level in innovative ways. Small, well controlled, course-based environmental research projects are teaching the process of formulating a research project with the application of instrumentation to important real-life scientific problems. C) Using instrumentation as tools for independent research and internships to solve more difficult, self-conceived problems.NSF grant funds are being matched with funds from non- Federal sources.
