Meeting Reports
Shaping America’s Scientific and Technological Workforce NSF-Sponsored Workshops on Curricular Developments in the Analytical Sciences by Patricia Ann Mabrouk
Analytical chemistry has changed tremendously in the past decade. No longer is analysis solely the domain of formally trained analytical chemists. Today, scientists from an increasingly broad array of disciplines are using analysis and analytical techniques to solve increasingly varied problems. The current exploration of Mars provides a vivid example of how the discipline has changed: on the Mars project, multidisciplinary teams of geologists, paleobiologists, astronomers, and chemists work together to study heterogeneous samples of limited size using a broad array of recently developed experimental techniques in order to answer questions of fundamental interest to everyone on our planet. These changes and concerns regarding the equipping of America’s future technological workforce, raised by the National Science Foundation in its 1996 report Shaping the Future, were the motivation for a series of workshops, funded by the NSF’s DUE and Division of Chemistry, held this past year. In attendance at the two workshops (October 28–30, 1996 in Leesburg, VA and March 13–15, 1997 in Atlanta, GA), organized by Ted Kuwana (University of Kansas), were fifty-six leading analytical researchers and managers from academe, government, and industry and committed analytical educators from two- and four-year colleges and universities. Group discussion was facilitated by a technique known as Linkage Analysis Planning (LAP) that is useful in identifying and prioritizing issues. The group considered the state of analytical chemistry education today, the needs motivating change, and the methods whereby real and lasting change could be effected. Overall, participants felt that analytical chemistry education needs to be significantly changed and improved. In-
dustrial representatives felt strongly that a growing number of college graduates lack the communication, teamwork, and problem-solving skills necessary to be successful. In part, the problem was felt to be due to the fact that the skill set students receive during their formal academic training is different from that required by today’s employers. Thus, the group’s recommendations are targeted to the development of lecture and laboratory curricula at the undergraduate level. Participants universally agreed that undergraduates should understand the fundamental concepts of the scientific method and of analytical measurement—how to select an appropriate analytical method and how to analyze the data generated. Participants calling for reform felt strongly that successful reform must involve not only the revision of course content but also a reexamination of the mode of delivery of that information to the student in the classroom. Problem-based learning (PBL) was proposed as a particularly valuable vehicle for delivering relevance, teaching teamwork, providing experience in problem-solving in the solution of real-world problems and facilitating the development of solid communication skills. The workshop participants made a formal set of recommendations that is detailed in the final report. Among those of most interest to Journal readers are the following: •
Spread the word about the need for revision, look for ways to share information and promote open discussion about curricular reform (this article), and look for ways to generate funds for curricular reform efforts
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Develop context-based curricula that incorporate problem-based learning Adapt and adopt teaching styles that accommodate students’ varied learning needs
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Offer students hands-on learning opportunities whenever possible Partner with K–12 classrooms to strengthen and enrich science education to younger students Encourage the ACS educational committees, such as the ACS Examination Committee and the Committee on Professional Training, to assume a more active leadership role in promoting curricular change in analytical chemistry Develop and disseminate a list of appropriate and well-developed technologies that teaching faculty may consider for use in their classes and laboratories Make technology an integral part of the undergraduate classroom and laboratory, and use this technology to link classrooms and improve student access to real-world learning Encourage analytical faculty to broaden and sharpen their technical skills and industry awareness by seeking nonacademic resources and learning opportunities. For example, invite non-academics to campus, develop and participate in exchange and visitation programs between industrial, government, and academic labs. Support the development of a corps of retired industrial analytical experts (Senior Analytical Corps) to mentor students and faculty through on-campus short courses and seminars. Form learning partnerships with industry to share knowledge and resources (equipment). For example, encourage on-site short courses offered by industrial experts, summer internships, and offer industrial fieldwork opportunities
The report also provided useful information on practices that some workshop participants have found successful in motivating and training undergraduates. Examples of what were regarded as “best practices” in analytical chemical
Chemical Education Today
Meeting Reports education today include: • Glenn Boutilier (Procter & Gamble Co.): Concern over the shortage of analytical chemists in industry led Procter & Gamble to develop a day-long traveling short course taught by its own senior scientists for undergraduates. The course, now in its sixteenth year (1, 2), is offered free to student attendees and the Procter & Gamble Company who pays the instructors’ travel costs. Over 2,500 students have benefited from attending the course which is presented annually at the Eastern Analytical Symposium as well as numerous university and college campuses. The course is targeted to junior and senior undergraduates who have had at least one semester of instrumental analysis. In the context of working together to solve actual industrial problems, the instructors show students what analytical chemists actually do in the industrial environment. Problems include: Why does a yellow cake mix have an off-flavor? Why are drums of ethoxylated alcohol bulging? • Barbara Duch (University of Delaware): Recognizing the fear many pre-vet, pre-med, and pre-physical therapy students have of taking general physics, Barbara Duch has developed a problem-driven, cooperative-learning honors general physics course designed to show students the relevance of physics to their interest in and understanding of the health sciences (3). Students are assigned to permanent groups that have regularly rotating roles including discussion leader, recorder, reporter, and accuracy coach. Each week the groups meet to solve real-world health-related problems that teach the students how to apply the fundamental physics concepts. For example, students might consider how to minimize the forces on the injured hip of an Olympic ski jumper or use the principles of momentum, the sketch of an accident scene, and a police report to reconstruct a car accident and to determine who was at fault. Grading considers both individual and group contributions. • Kenneth Hughes (Georgia Institute of Technology): In 1992 Kenneth Hughes developed a Quantitative Analysis course around a 350-gallon salt water aquarium with coral reef fish (4). Students monitor the aquarium several days each week in the laboratory to determine ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, phosphates, sulfate, oxygen, salinity, alkalinity, and calcium/magnesium concentrations, using different analytical techniques. Hughes feels strongly that responsibility is the central characteristic that makes this course work. Students given the responsibility to maintain the ecosystem change their attitudes about the course and become motivated to learn. The course has been emulated widely: Derivatives of the aquarium curriculum are now in use, for example, at Harvey Mudd College in California, Southern Community College in Ohio, and Harrison High School in Georgia. The aquarium has been featured in Harris’ Exploring Chemical Analysis, published by W. H. Freeman & Co. The course syllabus and a real-time viewing of the tank are available on the www at http://www.chemistry.gatech.edu/class/4211.hughes/ • Thomas Wenzel (Bates College): In 1991, troubled by
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the overlap of material and the artificial separation between the traditional undergraduate Quantitative Analysis and Instrumental Analysis courses, Tom Wenzel changed the traditional undergraduate analytical courses at Bates in terms of content and delivery (5). With Separations in the first course and Spectroscopy in the second semester course, students now use a group PBL approach both in lecture and in the laboratory. In the lab, students work together on projects that involve real samples and which require them to figure out how to get meaningful results. Examples of group projects include: GCMS analysis of benzene and toluene in air, ion-exchange chromatography and indirect spectrophotometric detection of nitrate and sulfate in rain, and the analysis of polyaromatic hydrocarbons in smoke and charbroiled meats by liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection. Copies of the report, “Curricular Developments in the Analytical Sciences”, are available free of charge by writing to Ted Kuwana, Department of Chemistry, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045. The final report is the guiding force behind the first chemical education symposium, “Revolutionary Changes in the Teaching of Analytical Chemistry”, held at the 1998 Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy in New Orleans, LA, March 4, 1998. The symposium, co-organized by Ted Williams (College of Wooster) and Pam Mabrouk (Northeastern University), features chemists and chemical educators who have made significant contributions to PBL and analytical chemical education. Speakers include Melanie Cooper (Clemson University), Alan Ullman (Procter & Gamble), Alanna Fitch (Loyola University at Chicago), Thomas Wenzel (Bates College), and Pam Mabrouk (Northeastern University). Future forums for discussion of the report and specifics on PBL are planned for the 1998 Eastern Analytical Symposium (Alanah Fitch, Loyola University at Chicago) and the 1999 Pittsburgh Conference (Tom Wenzel, Bates College). We invite readers of the Journal and chemical educators experienced in PBL to contact us and assist us in implementing the recommendations of this report. Literature Cited 1. DePalma, R. A.; Ullman, A. H. J. Chem. Educ. 1991, 68, 383– 384. 2. Thorpe, T. M.; Ullman, A. H. Anal. Chem. 1996, 68, 477A– 480A. 3. Duch, B. J. College Sci. Teaching 1996, 326–329. 4. Hughes, K. D. Anal. Chem. 1993, 65, 883A–889A. 5. Wenzel, T. J. Anal. Chem. 1995, 67, 470A–475A.
Pam Mabrouk, a member of the steering committee for the workshops, teaches at Northeastern University, Department of Chemistry, Boston, MA 02115;
[email protected].
Journal of Chemical Education • Vol. 75 No. 5 May 1998 • JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu
