In response to recent national mandates to improve undergraduate science education with innovations in teaching and laboratory experience for students, the department recognizes the need for modern equipment and computer applications in the undergraduate laboratory. The two distinct goals of this project are to integrate modern instrumental and computer methods throughout the chemistry curriculum and to achieve ACS accreditation for the new major. These goals are totally complementary, and somewhat synergistic, in their implementation. To move forward on this commitment, this project uses a benchtop gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) system to bring innovation and excitement into the laboratories at three different levels. The appeal of a GC/MS system is that it is a multipurpose instrument capable of capturing the imagination of students and motivating them in new and diverse ways. As an introduction, students observe demonstrations illustrating molecular behavior and are then guided through personal use of GC/MS in structure determination in the organic laboratory. In advanced laboratories, they study gas phase reactions and learn how to do more complex trace analyses and discover more about the power of the computer system. Finally, they have an opportunity to discover the value of GC/MS as a research tool and learn to appreciate its role in the undergraduate laboratory. The department sees a GC/MS system as an instrument well suited to motivating students to pursue a career in chemistry and as a tool that provides them with many skills they need to succeed in either industry or academia once they graduate.
