The Evolution of a Viable Undergraduate Research Program Wing hong Chan and Albert Wai ming Lee Hong Kong Baptist College, 224 Waterloo Road, Kowloon. Hong Kong
In a recent assessment by the NSF on their "Research Experience for Undergraduates" program, they found that such an undergraduate research program was very valuable ( I ) . The students who participated in the program became more positive about attending graduate schools, and their interest in science and engineering increased. In 1986 a completely new BS (Honors) degree program validated by the U.K. Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA) was launched at the Hong Kong Baptist College. The independent undergraduate research project requirement is regarded as the most important element in the honors degree course. The average enrollment of chemistry majors per year in our college has been around 40 to 50. For a small department with only 10 faculty members, the efforts involved in setting up and supervising 40+ independent research projects each year appear formidable. The most prominent constraints and difficulties in running such a program have been limited laboratory space, lack of certain research-grade instruments, and relatively heavy teaching and administrative duties for individual faculty members. The time each project student has to spend on the project work is only about 12 h per week for a period of 35 weeks. In order to obtain meaningful results by the end of the year, punctilious planning and monitoring are crucial. Through our strong commitment to providing quality tertiary education opportunities for this generation of students, many obstacles have been overcome, and a successful undergraduate research program has been established. Independent research project In our chemistry degree program students completed all foundation subjeets in analytical, inorganic, organic, physical, and biochemistry, both lectures and laboratories, before the fmal year. This ensures that thestudents have the necessary background knowledge and experimental techniques to start meaningful projects, of their own interest in the final year. The independent project training is a departmental team effort, and each of our faculty members has to propose at least four projects. Group projects are also acceptable, provided that the work of each student within the group can be well-defined and assessed independently. Junior-year students whoae academic performances satisfythe minimum grade point average (GPA) requirement are encouraged to pursue the honors degree route, which requires completion of an independent project. According to that arrangement, usually more than 80%of the senior class is eligible to undertake independent project work during their final year. Project selection starts at the end of the junior year. Proposals drafted by individual faculty members are pasted, and students are encouraged to discuss the details of those projects that interest them with the respective supervisors. Eligible students are allowed to choose three projects of interest to them. A departmental project selection meeting is then held to match the preference of the student with a supervisor. The selection process willgo onto a second round or even a third round until a one-to-one match has been achieved.
At the end of the year, each project will be assessed by the project supervisor and a "staff observer". The project assessment consists of three parts, namely practical performance (50%), thesis (3573, and oral presentation (15%). Both the ~roiectsu~ervisorand the staff observer assess the thesis and the oial presentation. The supervisor's and observer's assessments of these two parts are equally weighted. Practical performance assessment is strictly the responsibility of the ~roiectsu~ervisor.The thesis reauirement orovides the student with ;unique opportunity tobractice fdrmal technical writine. In some cases. this thesis could serve as a blueprint for ibrmal publication hy the faculty member. The 20min oral resenta at ion that is conducted in English alsooffers student; a chance to cultivate effective ~ommunication skills. Research Toplcs Both of the authors were formally trained in natural product synthesis at major North American universities. Naturally, we would initiate our undergraduate research program with the emphasis on organic synthesis. However, a complicated svntbetic oreanic oroiect reauires a rather lone ~ e r i o d of time-for an un&rgraduaie to aEquire the hasic s!& and analytical ahility required to characterize reaction products. The Chronlcle d Our Unfiargraduate Proled AdlvHles
(iss411sas) No. of Students Duration
~ o j e crnle t 1. IsomerIration of Aoetylenic Sulfoxldes 2. lon-Selective Elecnodes in Organic Analysis-A Sallcylste Eleclrode 3. Svnmesis of Functlonallzed Polymera and Exploration of thelr Anollcatlons 4. Synthesis of Acetylenlc SultoxMes 5. Determination of Vanlllin by a Vanillate-Selective Electrode 6. Pla~tIcizer~ In WC-A Combined GC and IR Approach 7. Determlnatlonof Xanmate by ISE memod 8. Functlonalized P o l n m ~ shom Cross-linked Chloromsthy at& Polystyrene 9. Tstrsheptylammonium Hydrogen Phthalate Msmbane Electrodes for tns Determination of Plestlcizsr In PVC 10. Phase Transter Catalysls In Or@c Symhesls 11. Acetylenic Sultoxldes In Dlels-Alder Reanions 12. UV SpectrophotonMtrlcDetermination of Amines by Formation of Dlthlocambamates 13. Oetsrm nation of Phenol Using ISE 14. Defbrmnatm of Almhala via n Stu O e m a t i m 01 Xanthafes under Phase Tranater Catalysis 15. Antioxidants In Plastic 16. Synthesis and application of Trimlocarbonate and Dithioc~mbamateContaining Resins 17. Vinyl Sulfoxides in Heterocyclic Systems 18. Fabric Sonenersas PhaseTransfer Catalyst In Organic Svnthssis
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Volume 68 Number 8 August 1991
647
Also, supervising a synthetic organic project is usually rather demanding. Therefore, in planning our synthetic projects for undergraduates, we must make sure that the technique involved willnot he too complicated. Projects like phase transfer catalysis that do not require inert atmospheres or fancy setups have proven to he quite suitable ( 2 4 ) . On the other hand. in order to assume a distinct role in the local education system by emphasizing applied research, we have redirected our research activities t o organic-based analytical projects as discussed below. In contrast to the organic projects, projects that require synthetic skills and manifest aspects of applications have been developed. Those efforts have resulted in the publication of a number of articles in referred journals with the coauthorship of undergraduate students.
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Chelating Resins Both synthetic and modified natural functionalized polymers have a wide range of applications, such as removal of toxic metals from industrial effluents, recovery of precious metala from industrial urocesses. and oreconcentration of sub-ppm level of metalsbfor microanalyk. Using our background in organic synthesis, we were ahle to design projects related to modifying commercially available chloromethylated cross-linked nolvstvrene hv introducine some chelating functional g r o ~ p ~ s ~h e s eproducts werethen used for metal adsor~tionstudv (13). The maior techniaues employed in the project were several steps-of organic iransformations followed by the metal ion analysis bv atomic abwhich combines sorption spectromet&. This type of organic and analytical techniques, has a special appeal to students. They can apply basic synthetic knowledge to produce some useful materials, then explore their potential industrial applications by analytical techniques. Since last year, we have also modified cotton cloth and sawdust hy a similar technique for the purpose of increasing the metal adsorption capacity. UV Spectrophotomeby in Organic Analysis Manv.oreanic com~ounds.because of their lack of oroDer UV chromophore, are transp&ent to UV radiation. ~ a s e d o n our previous findings (3), we have developed a common procedure that converts m i n e s (141, alcohols (15), and amino acids into UV-active species. Prior to the spectrophotometric measurement, only simple preparative techniques are required for the introduction of the chromophore (eqs 1-
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We are gratified that the students who participated in these projects were highly motivated because many important organic chemicals can he determined by this novel spectroscopic method. Again, the supervisory effort required in these projects was relatively low. One day's training was enough for an undergraduate student to acquire all necessary skills for the project. 648
Journal of Chemical Education
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Ion-Selective Eiechcdes (iSE's) in Organic Analysis Since most organic species do not exist in ionic form, only a few organic functional groups are amenable to direct ISE determination. During the past five years, through the undergraduate research program, we have designed a strategy toexpand thescope of ISE in organic analysis. Our method is to transform the covalent functionalgroups in situ into their ionic derivatives so as to provide a means for electromeasurement. Indirect sensing devices for aspirin (5), vanillin (6), phthalate (7),alcohols (S), amine (9),carhonyl compounds (10). Dhenols (11). xanthate (12). alkvl halides. and amides have been successfully develdped in our laboratory. Experience has Droven that this area of research is extremelv suitable for undergraduate students. Not only is the equipment reauired inex~ensive,hut also the supervisory effort invoived is much less demanding.
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Chemical Education Due to certain special glassware in our lahoratory not being available for immediate use, we had to, on occasion, innovate our setup. Examples included a homemade fraction cutter (16), a continuous liquid-liquid extractor (17), a pressure-equalizing addition funnel (IS), and a Dean-Stark trap for ezotropic removal of water (19). Project students also provided personpower to explore the feasibility of adopting several experiments in our undergraduate laboratory teachine" .(20-22). In summary, our recent joint undergraduate research activities toeether with the numher of students involved in the projects ischronicled in the table. Supervlslon of Undergraduate Research Besides day-to-day bench work supervision, the supervisor is expected to interact with each project student in the form of individual or small group discussion/tutorial for a t least 1h per week. Through these kinds of formal and informal interaction, students learn how research is planned, executed, and monitored by doing it themselves. They are also encouraged to contribute new ideas to their own project and help other students working under the same supervkor to solve their research problems. In a small institution like ours, occasionally we have to help the students obtain literature and instruments to support their projects from other local or overseas institutions. We even had some cases where students spent excessive amounts of time on their project work; we had to persuade them to balance this better with the time spent on their course work. Conclusion In a teachine-oriented colleee setting. if we intend to maintain research vigor, we must try o u r l e s t to explore the full ~ o t e n t i a of l the undermaduate research program. We havilearned from experience that, whenever possible, project work should he highly original, so that a formal publication with student coauthorship could result upon completion of the project. With this objective in mind, both students and teachers will he highly motivated. In the past six years, we are fortunate to have 30+ undergraduate students under our joint supervision. Their efforts have resulted in nearly 20 publications in internationally refereed journals (2-22). About half of our oroiect students coauthored a ." publication a t the end of their project training. More importantly, most of them enjoyed and treasured the close teacher-student relationship during the day-to-day interaction that was part of this program. The chemistry they learned and what they experienced was invaluable to them. Several energetic students decided to pursue further studies in chemistry and related fields in overseas universities as a result of the excitement they experienced in their project training. The feedback from these students has always been verv ~ositiveand encouraging. As one of them stated, "Undergraduate project workgave me the essential impetus to start up my graduate research project."
.
13. Chan, W.H.; Lee,A. W. M.:Choi, W.K.; Won& J.C. S.;Fung,K.K. AnolyficalLetf. 1990,23,659-674. 14. k,A.W.M.:Chan,W.H.;Chiu,M.L.;Tang,K.T.Anol.Chim.Artol989,218.157IE"
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20. Chan, W. H. J . C h ~ mEduc. . 1987.64.897-898. 21. Chan, W.H.;Lsm,K.S.: Yu,W.K. J.Cham.Edur 1989.66.172-173. 22. Lee.A. W.M.:Yip,W. C. J Chem. Edur., 1991,68,69-70.
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Number 8
August 1991
649
