A New Course for Chemistry Majors Evan T. Williams1 and Fiigerakl 8. Bramwell Brooklyn College. Brooklyn, NY 11210 Since the establishment of Brooklyn College at its Flathush campus in 1937, the chemistry faculty has encouraged and supported research participation by undergraduate students. The involvement in original research, training in advanced techniques, extension of knowledge beyond the standard curriculum, and close collaboration with faculty memhers, make the undergraduate research experience highly beneficial t o the student. An additional benefit, social in nature, occurs as faculty and students interact closely on the research projects and get to know each other well. Furthermore, since the projects are normally part of the professor's principal research interests, our students interact with graduate students as well. Most of our undergraduate research students are quickly caught up in the excitement of research and greatly enjoy their work. I t is our hope that this experience will encourage our students to pursue careers in which original research is important. Because concerns exist about the future supply of scientists, i t is incumbent upon us to inspire students by leading them into research and sharing with them the excitement and satisfaction of research. The course, Introduction t o Research, has been developed over the past two years and has two main goals. The first is t o develop interest in research, get students to speak t o faculty members, and select a research mentor and project. The second is to provide students with good entry-level preparation for research by introducing them t o the chemical literature, common research techniques, and professional concerns. Research In our Currlculum Introduction to Research is designed t o prepare students for our independent research courses: Research and Honors Research. Research is a two-credit course open to all students who have passed organic chemistry and quantitative analysis. Honors Research is a three-credit course with the same prerequisites except that only students with a chemistry grade-point index of 3.3 (out of 4.0) and an overall index of 3.0 are eligible. Students may take a maximum of three semesters of research for credit. Students spend a minimum of two hours in the lab for each credit hour. In addition. each semester there is an afternoon seminar where the studeuts aive five-minute oral nresentations of their research nroiects the faculty and other research students. A written report is due a t the end of each semester. The research courses do not count toward the credits of advanced electives needed for the major hut do, of course, count toward graduation. In the summer, additional opportunities exist for undergraduate research. Grants are sometimes available to support undergraduate students and Brooklyn College has, when possible, provided some matching support as well. During the summer of 1988, about 20 students received support for summer research. Structure of the Course Introduction to Research is a one-hour-per-week, onecredit course. This amount of time has proven appropriate in terms of the course goals and does not put an undue burden
Course Outline Topics
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I. The Nature of Research
11.
Ill.
IV. V.
VI.
Craduate Training Faculty Research interests Assignment 1 (Attend seminar) The Chemical Literature Dissemination of Research Results Historical Development Organization and Tour of the Library (Assignment 2) HOWto Search the Chemical Literature Chemical Abstracts (Asstgnment 3) Other Reference Works (Assignment 4) Research Proposal (Assignment 5) Common Laboratory Techniques Separation and Purification instrumentation Vacuum Techniques (Assignment 6 ) Rofessional Concerns Laboratory Safety Ethics in Research
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Class Pericds
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3
5
1 3
2
on students' programs of study. The course outline is found in the table. Part I. In the initial meeting, students are presented with a eeneralized discussion of research. The instructor reviews h tYe current research interests of the faculty. This serves a dual purpose: first, thevariety of researchallows the instructor tosurvey the kinds of research done in themain suhdisciplines of chemistry, and second, it starts the students thinking about which types of research projects they will pick and for which faculty mentors they will work. postgraduate-degrees in chemistry are discussed, including the process and the subsequent employment possibilities (using recent data from Chemical & Engineering News ( I ) ) . At this initial meeting, students are given their first assignment. They are given the schedule of the weekly Chemistry Department Colloquia and are asked to attend at least two of these lectures. take notes. and submit a hrief summary of two seminars. 'rhey are pkrmitted to attend research lectures elsewhere if their schedules conflict with our colloquia. The chemical literature is introduced via a description of the ways in which the results of original research aredissemiuated to the scientific community. Primary sources are distinguished from secondary sources. A hrief mention of the historical development of the scientific literature is made and the explosive growth of the chemical literature is illustrated by tracing the evolution of the Journal of the Chemical Society into its current seven descendants and the Journal of the American Chemical Society into its current 23 descendants.
' Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Volume 66 Number 7 July 1989
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Part 11. Next follows a unit on the oreanization of our own " college library. After a general discussion and a description of the Lihrarv of Coneress Classification Svstem. the students are l e d b r o u g h t h e library and are &own ahere the chemical literature is located. The tour ends in the main reading room where current periodicals are shelved. There the students are eiven their first literature assianment, which is t o hrowse~hroughrecent issues of a journal in the field that interests them and to submit a brief written summary of one paper (a primary source). They are asked to note the structure of a scientific paper. They are given several Library of Congress Classification Categories (e.g., QD 410, and asked to cite a book in each of these to ensure that they are able to locate books in the stacks. Although most of the students (second-semester sophomores or higher) in the course are rather familiar with the library, i t is best not to assume that they all know i t well. The students are also asked to summarize a review paper (secondary source), and note how i t differs from a primarysource paper. Finally, the students are asked to locate and summarizean early paper (20-30 years old or more), preferahlv in the same iournal as the one in which they found their primary paper, and comment on any differences from recent articles. P a r t 111. Following the introduction, an intensive unit on the organization and use of Chemical Abstracts (CA) is nresented. The students are amazed to learn that a .~.o r o x i mately 1.5 X 104 journals in many languages are read by the e in order ta abstract the world's chemiral litera.~ e .o ~ofl CA ture. Theusual student response t o a query on the number of chemical iournals is two orders of magnitude low. After the lecture material on CA is presented, the instructor takes t h e ~ t u d e n t s t otheC'Asection of the library,shows them the abstracts, the semiannual and collective indexes, demonstrates their use, and then leaves them with the next assignment. A small, helpful pamphlet, How To Search Printed CA, is available free from CA. In this assignment, students research specific items requiring the use of each of the General Subject, Author, Chemical Substance, Formula, and Ring Indexes as well as the Index Guide. They are also given, for example, a clipping of an item from the science section of The New York Times and are asked to find the paper on which the item was based. They are asked to find the earliest and most recent papers of a well-known chemist. They are asked to find the CA name, registry numher, and formula of compounds such as dioxin, 2,4-D, and Warfarin. The students respond well to this sort of detective work and the beauty and power of the CA system becomes quickly apparent. The next unit covers other reference works, principally the Beilstein and Gmelin handhooks. An assignment is given here requiring the students t o look up data in the two handbooks. A pamphlet, How to Use Beilstein, and a small German-English dictionary can he obtained from Springer Verlae. -. the ~ublisherof these handhooks. B ~ describing ~ ~ Hthe chemical literature and how to use it are available (2,3), and two organic textbooks ( 4 , 5 )have a sectionon how to use the literature. In addition, from time to time, articles have appeared in this Journal (6) which describe courses on chemical literature. P a r t IV. At this point, however, we turn our attention from the literature t o the development of research proposals for the students. As stated earlier, our primary goal is to get the students involved in research. In preparing for their respective research projects, a practicalap~licationof each student's literature skills will be required. The instructor meets with each student individually to help focus their interests and offer advice. Each student is then directed to visit at least one facultv researcher and select a research projert. Then, following the instructor's guidelines, the student will writea rought draft of a research proposal embody~~~~~
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Journal of Chemical Education
ine the ideas furnished bv the research mentor. The student m i s t search the literature for relevant articles t o cite in the orooosal. The ~ r o ~ o smust a l have a title vaee with ahstract. an introductory skction, a section on the proposed plan of research and a section for literature cited. In some cases, a computer search of the CA data base is performed to obtain additional references and to demonstrate the power of the computer literature search. The rough draft is scrutinized by the instructor to make sure that the organization is logical, that the introductory background, statement of the problem, and plan of research are conciselv and adenuatelv vresented. that there is evidence of a literature search, a i d , i m p o r t k y , that the provosal is written in clear. erammaticallv correct Enelish. The classic little hook by &nk and white (7) is especially recommended. The student may have to return to the prospective mentor for further clarification. The final version of the proposal, about five typed pages, is due a t the end of the course in lieu of a final exam and forms the main basis for the course arade. References 8 and 9 are useful auides for the students to use in preparing their proposals. P a r t V. The next segment of the course consists of lectures on common laboratory techniques such as separation and purification and an introduction to some of the department's instrumentation. The students are brought t o a lab with a working vacuum line and given an assignment involvine the desien of a vacuum line. kart VI. k lecture on safety is given and the students are shown reference works on laboratow safety considerations. including chemical reactivity and toxicity. The course concludes with a lecture on the important subject of ethics in research. Several helpful items t o read may be cited here (10-12); and articles on research fraud (13, 14) appear from time to time in scientific news magazines and newspapers. We feel that the best time to instill a set of ethical values in a potential research is right a t the start of their research career. A hook by Medawar (15) contains much wisdom and is recommended. Conclusion The course has run four times, and i t appears to he successful in meetine its eoals. Over 80% of the more than 40 students who have taken this course enroll in research programs and find that they are well prepared. While some of the students would have-done research in any case, some of them, due to shyness, lack of confidence, or other factors, might not have applied to do research. Feedback from the participating faculty mentors bas been positive, and t h e course has earned its place in our curriculum. The addition of this course to our curriculum is in line with a recommendation in The American Chemical Society Guidelines for Professional Education in Chemistry (16). Acknowledgment The authors are grateful for assistance and helpful suggestions frum Clyde Dillard, Harmon Finston, Paul Haherfield, and Herman Zieeer. The idea for this course was conceived in a proposal to-establish a Minority Access to Research Careers Program a t the College. We acknowledge support for this program by the Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under grant MRC5T34GM08078-03. Literature Cited 1. "1988
Ernolovment Outlook... C k m . Eat. News 1988.66 (Oct. 26). 3 3 4 l i '"Sdaw
4. March. J . Advanced Ornonie Chemistry. 3rd
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1,LS
ed.; WBey: New York, 1985; pp 1121-
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5 . i t r e t r l c l c r , A . H c a t h r r k . C H i n r r ~ o ~ r.n l rl (,r,.on,r ('hen,,rlr). .
