9452453 Whisnant The goal of this project is to strengthen the physical chemistry courses of three colleges by giving students the opportunity to work with laser equipment. The three colleges have formed a consortium to purchase the laser system, which each individual institution could not make available otherwise. This laser system will make it possible to demonstrate contemporary activity in physical chemistry, with the result being improvement in our students' laboratory skills and attitudes toward physical chemistry. The system will be compact, durable, and portable, allowing us to move it around, so that each college will have immediate access to the equipment every third semester. We also will bring students to another college to use the system when it is not located at our individual institutions. The laser system will be versatile -- we have four experiments planned for the project and others are possible. This project will have a significant effect on the chemistry programs of the three colleges, since all of the chemistry majors from the consortium members will use the laser system. The project also will be significant because our consortium, which will pool resources to obtain expensive laboratory equipment, could serve as a model for other institutions in a time of tight budgets and rising equipment costs.
