A transition from a traditional to a project-like physical chemistry

M.

R. G o l d w a s s e r

and 0. L e a l Univers~dadCentral de Venezuela Caracas. Venezuela

I 1

A Transition from a Traditional to a Project-Like Physical Chemistry Laboratory via a Heterogeneous Catalysis Study

A

new approach t o t h e teaching of a physical chemistry laboratory is presented which cumhines traditional a n d project-like experiments. Generally, t o t h e s t u d e n t , t h e educational objectives of a chemistry lahoratorv a r e n o t well defined. T h e phvsical

( 3 ) Heat of adsorption of t-butylhenzene by gas chromatography techniques (14-15). (4) Catalytic activity of the solids for thecracking of t-butylbenzene.

Two experimental setups are employed in this part: (a) A pulse micmcatalytie method to determine the activation energy of the reaction (16-17).

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experiments a r e carried o u t a n d fail to show a n overall relationship or coherence. T h i s procedure rives t h e student little encouragement t o work toward a better understanding of chemistry, a n d in m a n y cases, t h e experiments a r e far from t h e situations faced by chemists in their daily work. A better approach, which stimulates t h e creativity a n d logical thinking of t h e s t u d e n t , involves project-like experiments ( 2 ) , ( 3 ) . T h e projects a r e m a d e u p by a sequence of related experiments which a r e rich in concepts a n d allow t h e s t u d e n t s t o get acquainted with techniques used in chemical research ( 4 ) . A t t e m p t s a r e nut m a d e t o correlate t h e laborat#,r?.with thwr