Because of the growing scientific, technological, and economic importance of polymeric and solid state materials, many national science and technology organizations strongly encourage the integration of these topics into the curriculum for both majors and non-majors in science, engineering, and technology. At Youngstown State University, we have already integrated Materials science lecture topics and qualitative lab experiments into many of our Chemistry and Physics courses. The acquisition of the equipment in this proposal will allow us to expand this coverage and introduce many new quantitative synthetic and biologically derived polymer and solid state materials experiments into our sophomore through senior level Chemistry lab classes, the condensed matter Physics lab classes, a proposed Materials Science lab course. Non-science majors, including education majors, will use this instrumentation in new lab based general education courses having the discovery research format. Pre-service science teachers will be exposed to these methods in more depth through their integration into our course offerings at the sophomore and junior levels. In addition, materials characterization will be fully integrated into our professional development offerings for working teachers through both specialized summer lab courses optimized to meet the needs of science teachers and through "in service" days. The acquired thermal analysis equipment will allow our students to quantitatively evaluate phase changes in solid state, polymeric and biologically relevant materials and to quantify the chemical reactions of solid state materials at elevated temperatures. The viscometry and GPC/SEC equipment will allow our students to quantify the molecular weights and related physical properties of synthetic and biologically derived polymers. These new quantitative experimental results will be related to both the underlying physical principles and the practical applications of these materials in lecture discussions. This instrum entation project will directly impact over 400 students each year.
