Undergraduate Research As Chemical Education A Symposium
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The Education of Butchers and Bakers and Public Policy Makers J o s e p h F. Bunnett University of California, Santa Cruz. CA 95064 Obviously my theme is that undergraduate research in chemistry is a valuable component of the general education of citizens, especially those who do not undertake professional careers in chemistrv or in related fields. I contend that whatever the vocations of citizens, whether they are in business. or in aericulture. or in chemical eneineerina, or in the homk raisinga family, good research experience isimmensely valuable to them because, as participation in the winning of knowledge, it develops an awareness of what knowledge is, where it comes from, and what is the nature of "fact." However, before expanding on this theme, I should like to define some characteristics that I consider to be important to a good undergraduate research program in chemistry.
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Important Conditions for a Good Undergraduate Research Program . First, adequate time must be available to the student. Something approximating one-third time for an academic year is necessary. Summers are excellent; full-time for one summer can take the place of one semester or two quarters a t one-third time. Unfortunatelv there are colleee curricula which provide for undergraduateiesearch but all&ate insufficient ;me for it. Second, the student's research problem must be suitably chnsen. It should be a self-standine nroblem that is clearlv the responsibility of the student. ~ g participation e in thk research oroeram of a eraduate student, a post-doc, or a professor w i t h k t clearlidefined responsibilky for one or more seements of the nroeram tends to reduce the status of the st;;dent to that ofjlv1;;er nnd deprives him or her of the centrnl value of the rrsearrh experienre. The pruhlem should hescientificnlly significant, s k h that if su&-essfully completed it would qualify Tor publication, perhaps in combination with the resdts of othe; students. And, byall means, the problem should be tractable, one that presents a considerable likelihood of meaningful results within the time available if the student works with diligence and care. A few yrurs ago I encountered, at the (Iniversity of Ihadan. Nigeria, an interesting way of organizing undergraduate researrh. In 197R-79 the chemistrv deoartment had more than ~ O students O doing undergraduke theses. One professor who was interested in the kinetics of aromatic nucleophilic substitution reactions organized the work of six students in this wav: to studv the rates of reactions of o- and o-fluoronitrobenzene with piperidine in three solvent mixtures, he assigned each student one substrate and one solvent system as his or her responsibility. Each student made a careful and thorough set of rate determinations, including determinations a t several temperatures so that ac~ivationparameters rould be evaluated. T h r work of anv sinnle student wasa modest contrihution, but the aggregated work of the six served to define some interesting trends in reactivity. Third, there should be a firm requirement that significant work be performed on the project. Undergraduate research students during the academic year usually take some courses concurrentlv, and they sometimes neglect attention to research in order to meet sume immediate requirement of il course. Some of that cnn bc tolrratrd, but it must be clear that inadequate work on the research project will not be accepted ~~~~
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for academic credit or in fulfillment of graduation requirements. Fourth, there should be a degree of formality in presentation of the results of the research. The work should be presented as a thesis, in format approximating that of a PhD thesis. and hiah standards both of scientific renortine and of liter& expo&ion should be expected. ~ncid~ntall
