Over the past seven years, Rensselaer has developed a course sequence, Chemistry of Materials, that combines material from traditional General Chemistry and beginning Materials Science and Engineering courses that is taught to all engineering freshmen. Currently, the format of this course is being changed from the traditional lecture-recitation format to an interactive studio format, which emphasizes the active involvement of the student in the learning process. The connection between the laboratory and classroom material is made directly, and the practical relevance of the classroom material is made immediately obvious. A barrier to this integration has been the lack of experiments that can be performed within the two-hour interactive sessions that occupy the bulk of class time in this approach. In this project a series of laboratories will be designed to occupy 30-50 minutes of class time, and will emphasize discovery of basic principles, rather than verification of a previously enunciated principle. Successful completion of this project will result in the integration of laboratory and classroom material and will maximize the active involvement of the students in the learning process.
