An Individualized "Research" Approach to the General Chemistry Laboratory In the effort to introduce our transfer level general chemistry students to a broad experience of chemistry, we have developed an individualized "research" approach as the final experiment of our general chemistry laboratory sequence. This experiment is performed by all first year chemistry students a t Cermanna Community College and is not part of an advanced honors program. The laboratory directions given to the students for the last five weeks of laboratory are: "Starting with three grams of either copper, zinc, or magnesium, prepare a series of five compounds (A B C D E) and prove their identities." While such a task is simple, perhaps even trivial, to an experienced chemist, to a freshman general chemistry student this presents a formidable challenge in chemical research. The students are required to submit a detailed research-type proposal for the synthesis and identification of their chasen sequence of compounds. This proposal is checked for safety. The student is not told whether or not the procedure is workable. The writing of this proposal requires the student to do considerable librarv research and serves as an introduction to the chemical literature. Also. the student ouicklv discovers the imoortance of good e x ~ e r i m e n t ddesien and develoos a basic sense of svnthetic seaoeneine and analvtienl renaonine.
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synthesis and analysis the students are introduced to numerous synthetic and analytical methods. The analyses are comprlzed of both qualitative and quantitative determinations, including volumetric, gravimetrie and spectrographic procedures. The students are required to keep detailed lab notebooks of all procedures and results. Since each student may be performing a different series of experiments, they also are introduced to a variety of techniques by observing other students a t work. The warkine ~ 0 t t i 0 nof the labaratow reauires close suoervision and euidance bv the instructor. However. we have found that a lab of& to 20 students mav beiafeiv suoervised bv, the orimarv ;nstructor and s second-war student &&ant. When ,~~ rhr final nmpuund he- hrrn prepawd, iidntrd. and identified. lhr ctudrnt5 rrpon their reiult* in >tand.tnl jmrn.d f m n x . 1 he writing d t h r final report a * well as the initisl pn,pusnlgive the students furtht,rexprricnrr in wicnt:iic writing. This experiment has been used for four years a t our college with good success. The great majority of students have found it stimulating and exciting. They also feel a great sense of accomplishment in carrying out their own experimental procedures. Feedback from advanced students has been very positive. They feel that this experiment gave them valuable experience in both general methadalom and s~ecifictechniques, much mare so than "cookboak" t w e labs. Even students not ~ u r s u i n e advaneid courses in the sciences have commenied that the type of scientific logic developed during this experiment h& been of henefit in other fields. We believe that this experiment gives our students a good insight into the real working world of chemistry.
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Richard L. Stein Germanna Community College Locust Grove, VA 22508
828 1 Journal of ChemicalEducation
