A project-focused laboratory curriculum in Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry is being developed to enhance the creation of an interesting and pragmatic pedagogical interface between two traditional disciplines. In the search for commonality, this hybridized approach to a problem also brings forth needed relevance to the curriculum. It gives students the opportunity to work in teams; to design their own unique procedures for synthesis, isolation, and characterization of bioactive molecules; and to examine their reactivities and activities. This approach enhances discourse and subsequent learning as well as fosters mutual understanding. Exposure to modern techniques as well as state of the art equipment certainly widens student horizons and improves the employment prospects of those students who wish to stop at the B.S. level. In Organic Chemistry, it presents a more cutting-edge technique to approximately 30 percent of the sophomore class, each year, who will have the opportunity to indulge in chemical and enzyme kinetics with state-of-the-art UV spectrophotometers and use computational software to assess their results. In Biochemistry, students utilize both low-pressure and high-performance liquid chromatography, as well as spectroscopic studies, to focus their new structural perspective on the isolation and biophysical characterization of enzymes, which are the target of therapeutic agents and metabolic regulation.
