Bowie State University's Targeted Infusion Project, entitled: Enhancing the Undergraduate Chemistry Curriculum in the Natural Sciences Department, seeks a hands-on and interdisciplinary approach to chemistry courses for upper-level Biology majors. This requires new course development and the acquisition of various instruments and equipment to further enhance the teaching and research infrastructure. The project has five distinct goals: (1) develop and implement a Biochemistry Laboratory course that will be integrated into the current Biochemistry Lecture Course, (2) enhance the Organic Chemistry Lab II course curriculum with more inquiry based experiments, (3) acquire instrumentation to further develop the state-of-the-art teaching and research infrastructure in chemistry laboratories, (4) assess and evaluate student understanding of organic chemistry lecture and lab before and after the infusion of new instrumentation, updated experiments, and (5) disseminate project findings through journal articles, conferences and colloquia presentations.
The instrumentation, wherever feasible, is equipped with new generation software and hardware to facilitate data sharing, management and remote collection. Enhanced undergraduate education in both the classroom and the laboratory will result from remote access and associated cyber infrastructure capacities. An auxiliary user group of eight faculty members will also utilize the requested instrumentation for research in diverse areas of chemistry and biological sciences. Students trained and educated as a result of this project will be better positioned for admittance in graduate school and employment in a constantly evolving interdisciplinary biomedical workforce.
This Targeted Infusion proposal provided a hands-on and interdisciplinary approach to chemistry courses for upper-level Biology majors at Bowie State University which required new course development and the acquisition of various instruments and equipment to further enhance teaching and research infrastructure. The project had five distinct goals: (1) Develop and Implement a Biochemistry Laboratory course that will be integrated into the current Biochemistry Lecture Course, (2) Enhance the Organic Chemistry Lab II course curriculum with more inquiry based experiments, (3) Acquire instrumentation to further develop the state-of-the- art teaching and research infrastructure in chemistry laboratories: a mass spectrometer, two infrared spectrometers, and two rotary evaporating systems, (4) Assess and Evaluate student understanding of organic chemistry lecture and lab before and after the infusion of new instrumentation, updated experiments, and (5) Disseminate project findings through journal articles, conferences and colloquia presentations. Metrics and data concerning the overall effectiveness of the project were collected, analyzed and disseminated. The intellectual merit of the project lies mainly in integrating hands-on experiments into organic and biochemistry courses within the biology undergraduate curriculum. The instrumentation, wherever feasible, is equipped with new generation software and hardware to facilitate data sharing, management and remote collection. Enhanced undergraduate education in both the classroom and the laboratory will result from remote access and associated cyber infrastructure capacities. An auxiliary user group of 8 faculty members will also utilize the requested instrumentation for research in diverse areas of chemistry and biological sciences. Broader Impact: STEM undergraduates, mostly underrepresented minorities, received state- of-the art education and training in data acquisition and spectral analysis in biochemical and synthetic chemical sciences. Activities from this project provided valuable research capabilities and experience to all biology majors. The remote access capability added to the established network, thus facilitating all authorized user groups, from anywhere, to process, analyze, distribute, and discuss acquired data from the instrument. All students trained and educated as a result of the proposed Targeted Infusion were positioned for admittance in graduate school and employment in a constantly-evolving interdisciplinary biomedical workforce. Outcomes: Students involved in the project obtained proficiency in spectroscopic techniques and structure determination using mass spectrometry and infrared spectroscopy. Students were trained on the newly acquired Agilent GS/MS system in which they became proficient in measuring the mass, and therefore the molecular weight of a molecule. They were also able to deduce structural information about a molecule by measuring the fragments produced when molecules are fragmented by the electron bombardment of the Mass spectrometer. Students also became proficient in Infrared Spectroscopy thus capable of identifying certain molecular functional groups of organic compounds by transmitting electromagnetic radiation through compound samples and analyzing the corresponding percent transmittance and absorbance. Student Achievements: Trained undergraduate students were able to use the newly analytical equipment with minimal assistance from senior personnel. Former students who participated in project year 1 and/or received training in year 2 on equipment purchased by the grant were accepted to professional or graduate school. We have trained approximately twenty students to date on the instrumentation. This we believed encouraged many of the students trained on the equipment to apply for other prestigious summer internship opportunities. Several students obtained summer internships. Community Outreach and Dissemination: Students and faculty presented hands on demonstrations at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. in April 2012 and April 2014. www.afro.com/sections/news/prince-georges-county-news/story.htm?storyid=74797 and student work funded by the grant was presented at Bowie State University's Annual Grants Expo and Research Day 2013 and 2014.
