Teaching the Research Process via Organic Chemistrylab Projects LeRoy Kroll Taylor University, Upland, IN 46989
The use of proiect-oriented lahoratorv experiments in undergraduate l ~ b o ~ a t owork r y has been the subject of a number and elsewhere (1-9). Most of of reports in THIS JOURNAL these projects have had certain things in common: the use of required reports, some oral (1,2) hut most in a written form (3-9); required use of the literature (1-6,IO); and individual work (1-9). A wider variation can he observed in the tvpe of work done-most of the projects involve repetition work withminor or no modification (2,3,6-91, but some have required or allowed creative development of original work as a significant part of the experience ( 1 , 4, 5). Most of the projkcts havebeen done during an organic chemistry course (1,2,4,8,9), but some have been done during an introductory course (3.7) while a t least one uses the first two vears of lah, . oratory woik (6). The usual group of students hvolved has been a mixed e..r o u.~ i .. n eof science maiors (I. 3.6-9). Student and instructor enthusinsm for project-or~entedlabs seems to he hirh. The maior orohlem acknowledaed - bv.most reports is the iarge time demand used. In the excitement of a new program. such heavv time demands are often possible to ignore. if a program is tobe continued for a number bf years, however. the time expected from students probably has to be more cobrdinate with their credit for the class. years of excessive time demands on an instructor can also have their toll. As pointed out above, all of the reported laboratory projects make use of individual student work, usually for the stated reason that in group work one person tends to do all the work andlor one group member does little work (5,9). Despite this possible problem, most chemists and other scientists spend their professional careers working in groups; our educational systems rarely provide group working experiences, however. Taylor's Small Group Projects As with many of the reported project labs, our projects occur in the organic cbemistrv course during the second semester of the cl&. The students in the c o k e are a mixture of chemistry, hiology, environmental science, and premed majors. The average enrollment is 18, with a deviation of about five. All of the chemistry. maiors are sophomores; the others . are usually juniwj. As with other projects, use nf theoriginal literature is required, and final oral and written reports nrr suhmitted in ndditiou to a notehouk. The course differs from most others in srvt~rdways. A h e a q emphasis is placed upon the pnwrss of ci~rrvingoutresearch in o plonnrd mnnnrr. Each group chooses a project from a listinr whichdescribes the hrnad eoalsofa number
