focuses on a specific question that the students must auswer about a biologically relevant problem. Each laboratory module is designed a s an in-depth study lasting three to four weeks. "A a i d e d discoverv method" of teachiue the course i s employed, and teamwork and decision making are emphasized. Computer prelabs are used to ensure that the students are confident in what they need to do when they enter the laboratory, and interactive videos help them to grasp difficult concepts. Novel computer-based examinations are beinp developed and tested. The tooics of four of the modules include: i)the chemistry of the stomach; 2) skin cancer; 3) lead poisoning; and 4) blood chemistry. The fifth module i s designed to expose the undergraduate students to science teaching in the local primary and secondary schools. Each college student observes and participates in a K-12 science classroom, reads articles in science education journals, works with a science teacher in a local school, designs and teaches a laboratory-based project for the K-12 classroom, and participates i n discussions and evaluations about the science lesson that has been taught and the conclusions t h a t have been reached ahout the teaching and learning of science.
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Cooperative Organic Laboratories Melanie M. Cooper Clemson University
DUE 9455526 $159,948
Most traditional organic chemistry laboratories tend to be of the cookbook type. That is students learn laboratory techniques and then use them to synthesize a given compound i n a prescribed manner with a recipe. There is growing unease within the chemical education community about the pedagogical value of such laboratories. The organic laboratory course proposed here will build on the streneths of our eeneral chemistrv laboratorv courses. Students-will work & groups on open-ended proiects instead of one lab oeriod exercises. Instead of learnine a technioue a s a n end in itself, techniques will be learned as a means to an end. Over the course of the semester. students will aoply their problem solving skills to projects approximati& the research process as closelv a s possible. The students will also use both their written a*d oral communication skills to plan, critique, and evaluate their experiments. Anumber of resource materials will be developed including a multimedia program that incorporates video and text so that students can access information in the laboratory, and a laboratorv manual that will contain a database of twical ex, pwimental conditions and workup procrdurri in oddition to rlwrripti~~ns of techniques. This ntw I : h furm:lt will h:~\.rn s~gn~ficant impact on 11ou our students learn organlc chcmistry nnd sill bc particularly beneficla1 to romen. The principal vnlua of this project lies in its application AI.1. orplnic studrnrs, in thv vxpcxted irnprmwl pertimnancc and highcr rctcntion rotcs for women and ill its adaptability to ocher situations
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The Inorganic Illustrator: a 3D Graphical Supplement for Inorganic and Bioinorganic Chemistry Courses Distributed on CDROM Karl S. Hagen Emory University
DUE 9455567
$134,989
The visualization of comolicated three dimensional Inorganic, Bioinorganic, and ~ b l i dState chemical structures is a particularly difficult problem for students to overcome when the primary means of communication is the two dimensional world of text books, blackboards, and overhead projector screens. Due to the increased performance and availability personal computers, both instructors and . of . students are beginning to embrace interactive multimedia 534
Journal of Chemical Education
a s a means of communicating chemical information. The goal of this project is to provide on CDROM a wide variety of manipulatable molecular models, miniature movies, and dynamic animations that address the topics i n Inorganic and Bioinorganic chemistry that will most benefit from a multimedia format. The free software Chem3D Viewer is being used to present a database of hundreds of accurate crvstal structures that will benefit students and teachers at all leiels who cncount6.r int,rg:inic structures. S t m d alune tutorials that describe the use of the wftwilrr and explain difficult structural concepts of inorganic chemistry are being produced. Dissemination of test versions will be via the Internet, followed by the complete version on CDROM, and evaluated by polling users a t a variety of small and large institutions. Introduction of Modern Instrumentation in the First Two Years of Chemistry: The lowa Chemistry Curriculum Network (IACCN) Thomas J. Greenbowe lowa State University
DUE 9455646
$260,621
The obiectives of this project are to research. develoo. and incorporate three moduiar instructional resources & modern instrumentation into the first two years of college chemistry. The modules will contain instrnmentation-oriented components dealing with current real-world topics, group projkcts, updated teaching methods, student learning assessments, emphasis on conceptual thinking interactive multimedia and exploratory laboratory experiments. Development of interactive, multimedia computer proprams that simulate the ooerations of the FT-IR. and FTSMR spectrom6:tt:ri. from sample ht~ndlingto dara acquis ~ t i o nand work-uu will be d~,vt~loot~d in cullahoration u,ith Engineering ~ n i m a t i o n Inc. , A U k V E multimedia simulation has alreadv been develo~eda t the Universitv of California a t ~ a n ~ i e g~oc .o n s o k i u mof Iowa's 15 con&unity colleges, three public universities, and four private colleges will collaborate on all aspects of t h e project through long-distance video conferences on Iowa's fiber-optics communication network and a t annual summer workshops. This project will enable students and faculty in the entire state of Iowa to have facile access to modern instrumentation (W-VIS, FT-IR and FT-NMR) via computer simulations. Iowa State university will serve as a clearing house for running actual chemical samples submitted by students of the participating institutions. The samples will be run on instruments a t Iowa State University, and the soectra will be made available to the students and facultv from the community colleges and private colleges over the internet (via anon fto. the world wide web.. or bv " e-mail) as digital files or graphic images. This project will provide new curriculum enhancements and developments to fouryear institutions and all community colleges i n the state of Iowa. A New Investigative Laboratory for Introductory Organic Chemistry Involving Polymer Synthesis and Characterization Gregory B. Kharas DePaul University
DUE 9455681 $70.000
This project i s developing a model comprehensive organic laboratory curriculum that gives students the opportunity to be imaginative and creative, leads to better understanding of t h e conceots t h a t underline scientific research, a& provides a n important connection between theoretical and practical organic chemistry. Individual exploratory research projects are designed for the last quarter of a three-quarter laboratory course that internates the instructor's risearch interests-with learning experiences
