William Rainey Harper College, Harold Washington College, Oakton College, and University of Illinois at Chicago are members of the Chemical Professional Laboratory Program (CPLP) Network. The CPLP is an initiative supported by the NSF-DUE Course and Curriculum Development Program. The CPLP materials under development focus on providing students with experiments using scenarios drawn from seven different departments in four different colleges within the University of Illinois at Chicago. An important instrumentation need has been identified by the network participants to support the best implementation of the CPLP concept: the use of rapid and reliable diode array instrumentation (UV-Visible) for many of the experiments. This instrumentation, whose purchase or upgrade is the focus of this proposal, is needed to make the student experience of general chemistry concepts, in a professional context, as effective as possible. In addition to the interdisciplinary nature of the materials developed, the CPLP has a strong faculty development focus. Community college faculty worked extensively during the dissemination program learning the methodology and pedagogy of these labs. It is anticipated that this program will, have a positive impact on teaching and learning chemistry as well as provide a more effective laboratory experience.
