Providing Motivation for the General Chemistry Course through Early Introduction of Current Research Topics Thomas A. ~ o l m e ' University of South Dakota, Vermillion, SD 57069 Current1.v there exlsts uidespread conccrn about a perceived drop in student inreresr in research icience I I.. A number ofproposals have begun to address this issue, particularly through enhanced laboratory experiences (2)and in the concent of a "research-friendlv curric~lum".~ While the nature of lectures in introductory courses has been discussed with relation to this issue ( 3 4 , the possibility of actually enhancing student interest in research by means of the lecture portion of the course has been largely overlooked. The lecture, however, is the one place where most students a t least see, if not interact with, a n established research scientist. For many institutions, laboratories are taught by teaching assistants regardless of their curricular content. Thus, the lectures must be seen a s a forum wherein we concentrate not only on avoiding negative feelings and delivering material, but also ac
