In the Classroom edited by
Curricular Change Digests
Baird W. Lloyd Miami University Middletown Middletown, OH 45042
Early Exposure of Undergraduates to the Chemistry Research Environment: A New Model for Research Universities†
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Harriet A. Lindsay* and Matthias C. McIntosh**‡ Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701; *
[email protected]; **
[email protected] In their recent report entitled Reinventing Undergraduate Education: A Blueprint for America’s Research Universities, the Carnegie Commission for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning criticized the ability of research universities to educate their undergraduates. Among the commission’s recommendations was that research universities should cease attempting to emulate the liberal arts model for undergraduate education and should instead create a unique environment in which the undergraduate teaching mission is integrated with their research mission. Recent trends in chemical education complement this recommendation. Some chemistry faculty have designed undergraduate laboratories that mimic the graduate research group by utilizing cooperative learning techniques coupled with open-ended experiments. Others have incorporated original research into labs, allowing students to experience research first-hand. In lecture courses, interventions that expose students to original research have been implemented, either through early introduction of research topics into the chemistry curriculum or through cooperative activities that involve observing ongoing research projects. At research universities, faculty who direct graduate research and teach large undergraduate lecture courses have the opportunity to expose many students to the excitement of scientific research using resources that are readily available. We report herein a program that we have developed, which introduces second semester organic chemistry students to the research environment through voluntary brief participation in an ongoing synthetic organic research project. The goal of the project is to give all students a taste of scientific research early in their academic career, with the hope that they would seek out an appropriate research experience earlier than they might otherwise have done. The research project under study was the total synthesis of the anticancer natural product eleutherobin. Rather than simply incorporating the project into the lecture or using passive observation of research activities performed by others, we elected to involve the students directly through hands-on activity, having each student perform one reaction directed toward the total synthesis.
Previous studies indicate that some exposure to research improves students’ notion of what chemists do and that a connection may exist between early exposure to research (or scenarios mimicking research) and later participation in scientific research. Based on these findings, we anticipated that participation in this project would provide students with some insight into the research process. Project Description and Operation
Total Synthesis of Eleutherobin Eleutherobin, a diterpenoid isolated from a soft coral, has exhibited potent in vitro anticancer activity against breast, kidney, lung, and ovarian cancer cell lines. Although eleutherobin was chosen as a synthetic target by our research group for these and other scientific reasons, its biological activity makes it ideal for garnering the interest of students. Student Participation During the first week of the spring 1998 semester, all second-semester organic chemistry students were invited to participate in the research project. Nineteen students, or 10% of the total class enrollment, elected to participate. Each student spent three to five hours in the research lab under the direct supervision of one of us (H.A.L.). Only one student was allowed to participate during each session. All sessions consisted of the following components: An update regarding the previous student’s progress Discussion of the day’s reaction Calculations of reagent quantities needed for the experiment Performance of the experiment Documentation of the reaction in a lab notebook NMR analysis of results (if time allowed)
During the final week of classes, a presentation was given in the participants’ organic lecture class, which described what had been accomplished and what was learned from experiments that did not proceed as planned. Evaluation and Conclusions
†
This work was presented at the 216th National ACS Meeting, Boston, MA, August 23, 1998, abstract CHED 108, and at the Gordon Research Conference on Innovations in College Chemistry Teaching, June 22, 1999, Connecticut College, New London, CT. ‡ Cottrell Scholar of Research Corporation.
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The experience outlined above was meant only to serve as an introduction to the research process. The scope of the undergraduate involvement necessarily limits the experience of any one student. Nevertheless, many careers, scientific or otherwise, begin with a piquing of interest by means of a
Journal of Chemical Education • Vol. 77 No. 9 September 2000 • JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu
In the Classroom
brief but memorable experience in the field of endeavor. We recognize that the number of participants and the manner in which they were chosen (i.e., self-selection) renders rigorous and quantitative evaluation of the project problematic. However, some informal evaluations can be made on the basis of the participants’ comments and our own observations. We observed that the students were not discouraged by the early problems. Instead they seemed to appreciate the trial-and-error nature of scientific research. In addition they generally recognized that reactions that did not proceed as desired were nevertheless useful in understanding the chemical reaction under study. All of the participants indicated that they would recommend the experience to others, and several expressed an interest in donating more time to the project. Indeed, three of the participants later joined our research group and continue to work on this and other research projects. Given the initial success of this endeavor, we again incorporated a percentage of second-semester organic students into the research project in the spring 1999 semester. For the second iteration of the project, we constructed a Web site to
assist students in learning about the project and as a gateway to enable students to learn more about synthetic organic chemistry research (http://www.uark.edu/orgchem/research. html ). Significantly, each continuing iteration of the project will have a history of undergraduate participation. We hope that the participating students will come to recognize themselves as collaborators in a continuing scientific endeavor that will result in important chemical and biomedical advances. We feel that the project described in this communication could be readily emulated at any research institution. With careful planning on the part of the graduate student and the research advisor, the participation of undergraduates should not significantly slow the progress of the research project, especially since the undergraduate participation component comprises only one semester of each year. W
Supplemental Material
Supplemental material for this article is available in this issue of JCE Online.
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