Downloaded by 80.82.77.83 on April 19, 2018 | https://pubs.acs.org Publication Date: August 2, 2007 | doi: 10.1021/bk-2007-0970.pr001
Preface About 10 years ago, supported by the National Science Foundation, nearly 60 leading analytical researchers, educators, and administrators from academe, government, and the private sector met to discuss the marked changes occurring in the world relative to the practice o f analytical chemistry and to discuss the requisite changes in the education and training o f analytical scientists. The resulting report Curricular Developments in the Analytical Sciences authored by Professor Theodore K u w a n a (University o f Kansas) called for marked changes not only in course content but also in the mode o f delivery. The report offered a number o f formal recommendations punctuated by a call for the investigation o f active-learning methods and problem-based learning, in particular. This fledgling, grassroots effort burgeoned during the past decade into a thriving discipline-wide reform movement punctuated by a number o f long-standing symposia and workshops at the Eastern Analytical Symposium, the Pittsburgh Conference, A m e r i c a n Chemical Society ( A C S ) National Meetings, a notable series o f "A-page" articles i n Analytical Chemistry, as w e l l as other notable activities and projects including the A n a l y t i c a l Sciences Digital Library, some o f which are discussed in this volume. This ACS Symposium series volume is partially based on a symposium Innovative Approaches for Teaching Analytical Chemistry organized and chaired by Patricia Mabrouk, sponsored by the ACS Divisions o f Analytical Chemistry and Chemical Education, w h i c h took place at the 230 National Meeting o f the A C S in Washington, D . C . , August 28-September 1, 2005. M a n y o f the contributors to this volume were speakers in this symposium or at the J. C a l v i n Giddings A w a r d Symposium that honored Professor Frank Settle (Washington and Lee College), a leader in the reform movement. The A w a r d Symposium occurred concurrently with the ACS National meeting. th
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Downloaded by 80.82.77.83 on April 19, 2018 | https://pubs.acs.org Publication Date: August 2, 2007 | doi: 10.1021/bk-2007-0970.pr001
This book strives to present a balanced picture of how the education and training of analytical chemists has changed in the decade since the NSF-sponsored curricular workshops. These workshops spawned a wide array of active learning activities at the collegeuniversity level. This volume provides a number of examples of how these methods have been applied in teaching analytical science, broadly defined, at colleges and universities at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Contributing authors also discuss how our discipline and academe in general must continue to evolve and change if our nation is to continue its leadership in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. This volume is a first in many ways—several books have been published in recent years that focus specifically on problem-based learning or other specific active learning methods but none have neither discussed active learning methods broadly per se nor illustrated their use in teaching a specific discipline. As such, the strategies, materials, and experiments described in the volume should be of interest to practicing analytical chemists, chemical educators, and chemistry teaching faculty and graduate students no matter their area of specialization. It is hoped that this volume will serve as a catalyst to promote further discussion, thoughtful experimentation in the classroom and the laboratory, innovation, and reform not only in the analytical sciences but also in the allied fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. In closing, the editor wishes to express her sincere thanks to each of the authors of the chapters of this volume. You are an amazingly talented, dedicated, and hardworking group. It has been a great pleasure and honor to partner with you. I wish each of you the very best and I look forward to seeing what the next decade brings as a result of your willingness to participate in the present "experiment!"
Patricia Ann Mabrouk Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology Northeastern University Boston, M A 02115
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