California Association of Chemistry Teachers
Corwin Hansch
Pomona College Cloremont, California
The Seaver Chemistry Laboratory for Undergraduate Instruction
I n 1965 the chemistry section of the Seaver Science Center a t Pomona College was completed. The $7,000,000 center, a gift from the Seaver Institute by Dr. and Mrs. Frank R. Seaver of Los Angeles, was begun in 1955 and now houses the departments of Astronomy, Chemistry, Geology, Mathematics, Physics, and Zoology. Although the size of the gift alone makes it unusual, the Seavers' awareness of the supreme importance of the contents of the buildings is almost unique in academic philanthropy. They clearly appreciated that today, in addition to buildings and faculty, much expensive equipment, a supporting technical staff, and funds for maintenance are absolutely essential to effective science education. They wisely insisted that the faculty supervise design of the building so that effective function would be the paramount consideration. The purpose of this report is to describe the chemistry section of the building and its implications for undergraduate instruction in a college of arts and sciences. Pomona's present enrollment is limited to 1200 men and women, about 40y0 of whom major in science. The chemistry department, which also includes biochemistry, has a faculty of six and graduates about eight majors each year. The department is heavily involved with the instruction of students of biology. About 25 premedical students and about 5 zoologychemistry majors are graduated each year. Pomona is the largest member of the Claremont Colleges, five of which are undergraduate schools. The sixth is Claremont Graduate School and University Center which at present offers science graduate work only in botany and psychology. For all practical purposes, then, the Seaver Chemistry Laboratory was built to serve the present and future needs of a small undergraduate institution. No budget restriction was set in planning for the building or its equipment. The cost of the chemistry wing was approximately $2.7 million including furnish'mgs. The donors made a further contribution of $650,000 for scientific instrumentation. Of this sum, $200,000 61 2
/
Journal o f Chemical Education
was used in the purchase of an IBM System 360/40 computer for the needs of the whole college. The remaining $450,000 was utilized for chemical instrumentation. At present, maintenance is being provided for the Center by the Seaver Institute on an annual basis. The building's design and equipment reflect a particular attitude toward undergraduate instruction. I n the past two decades Pomona's science departments have progressively moved toward greater use of research as a means of teaching. Pomona attempts to provide each student with a general education of sufficient depth and breadth to make him an effective citizen and person. The need for chemists to master more mathematics, physics, and chemistry in the undergraduate years has greatly restricted the time for laboratory instruction during the academic year and led to an ever wider use of summer research to introduce the research approach and instruct students in the use of complex laboratory techniques, the literature, and computing facilities. Students are accepted as research assistants as early as the summer following the freshman year and many work three summers of ten weeks, accepting increasing responsibility as their skills mature. At present, the chemistry department has funds for about twenty participating students who are paid stipends roughly equivalent to summer earnings from outside employment which it replaces. Devoting his entire time to a laboratory problem during the summer seems to provide a student much more effective instruction than the badly broken up four-hour weekly lab of the academic year. With this in mind much of the space and equipment in the building has been planned for dual use in class and research instruction. Efficiency in the instructional program is increased by keeping the courses offered to a minimum and providing sophisticated up-to-date equipment at all levels. As examples, the introductory chemistry course teaches quantitative analysis using single pan balances (two students to a balance), pH meters, and DU-2 spectrophotometers. NMR, IR, UV, and Mass Spectra are run and an-
1
Neutron Generator Meehsnieal Equipment Electrical Vault Radiation Laboratory 4 Radiation Laboratory 5 Shop Storage 6 Counting R o m 7 Physical Chemistry Preparation and Storage 8 Machine Shop 8A Shop Office 9 Physical and Advanced Analytical Laboratory 10 Wood Shop 10A Welding and Hydrohone 11 Instrument Room 11A Dark Instrument Room 12 Lecture Preparation Room 12A Custodian 13 Special Instrument Preparation Laboratory 13A 2 2A 3
1
l4
Mass Spectrometer Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Anlmal Room Office Reserve Stockroom Elevator Machine R a w Physical Chemistry Research Laboratory Electronics Shop Electronlea Shop Office Glassblowing Laboratory Men's Room
111
-
1
Gas Chromatography Ultra Micmtome Electron Microscope
-
113
99 100 lOOA lOOB lOOC 101 102 103 103A 104 lO4A 105 106 107 107A 108 1084. 1088 108C 109 109A
138 Infrared Spectrophotomet.rs Visible and Ultrsviolet Spectrophotometer
Office Dry lee and Liquid Nitrogen Storage Analytical Chemistry Research Laboratory Office Custodian Elevator
109
1
Elevator Large Lecture Hall Projection Roam Storage Storage Men's Room SCALE: Seminar R o w Women's Room Cot Room Drafting Room 6 Xerox Room Dark Room Custodian Dispensing Stockroom Secretary's Office Secretarial Supplies Receiving Room Solvent Storage Alcohol Storage Water Cooling Tower Library Typing Room
Figure 1.
118'' = 1'
l09B 109C 110 111 lllA 112 113 114 116
Microfilm Room Visiting Scholar Office Computer Laboratory Freshman Chemistry Laboratory Instrument Room Freshman Chemistry Preparation and Storage Instrument Roam Freshman Chemistry Laboratory Instrument Room
Floor Plans for Sewer Laboratory of Chemirhy, Pomono College-Bosement
(mbovel-First
Floor.
Volume 43, Number 1 1, November 1966
/
613
Elevator Custodian Men's R o w Lecture Room High Pressure Laboratory Faculty Research Laboratory Dark R o w Micro.laboratory Chromatography Laboratory 209 Office 210 Organic Research Laboratory 21OA Instrument Room -911 -- O- -f-f-l -r -r 212 Organic Research Laboratory 213 Cold Room (+4 OC.) Figure I b.
Floor Plans for
Construction and Equipment
The buildings of the Science Center are of reinforced concrete construction each with a central corridor the length of the building. In the chemistry section, a vertical flue (2 ft net) on each side of the comdor is used for air-conditioning ducts and utility distribution and for carrying fume hood ducts to the exhaust fans on the roof. Of the 144,000 sq ft of gross floor space in the center, the chemistry wing contains 56,000 (Fig. 1). The building contains machine, welding, woodworking, electronic, and glassblowing shops which are equipped for professional use and serve biology and geology as well as chemistry. Also for general college use is the 244seat lecture room which provides for slide, movie, and television projection and has facilities for lecture demonstrations. Provision is made for closed-circuit TV throughout the building. The IBM 360 computer center outgrew the space planned in chemistry and was moved to larger quarters in the mathematics department. It has grown to include $500,000 in computing equipment, and student and faculty demand is so great that five card punches located in the various departments are necessary. In the chemistry department computing room are a card punch for 360 programing, a small Clary DE-60 computer, and calculating machines. The ground floor of the building holds the heavily used library, department office, dispensing stockroom,
/
Cold Room (-20 and -80 OC.) Organic Stockroom Faculty Research Laboratory Ice Machine, Dry Ice, etc. Counter Current Extraction Laboratory Faculty Office and Laboratory Advanced Organic Laboratory Instrument Room Faculty Office and Laboratory Fan Area Access Storage Biochemistry Laboratory Elementary Organic Chemistry Laboratory Organic Chemistry Preparation and Storage
Semer Laboratory of Chemistry, Pomono College- -Second Floor.
alyzed as part of the advanced organic courses. In the biochemistry laboratory each student uses preparative and analytical ultracentrifuges, an automated amino acid analyzer, scintillation counters, and high-voltage electrophoresis.
614
213A 214 215 216 216A 217 218 218A 219 220 220A 221 223 225
Journol of Chemical Education
and general chemistry labs as well as a seminar room. The chemistry library has essentially complete files of about 115 journals as well as 2300 reference works. Adjoining it are an office for visiting professors and typing and microfilm rooms. Adjoining the general chemistry labs are balance and instrument rooms and a preparation and storage room for servicing these courses. The stockroom is accessible by elevator to a reserve storeroom immediately below and an organic stockroom above which is protected by an automatic COz fire extinguishing system. Near the elevator in the first floor stockroom is an automatic washer and dryer for laboratory glassware. The washer is easily accessible to personnel throughout the building. In the basement are offices for the physical and analytical faculty and their research laboratories. Where needed, oxygen for glassblowing is supplied with other utilities. Between the research area (room 17) and the physical chemistry and instrumental analysis laboratory (room 9, Fig. 2) is a group of small rooms each of which is designed to house a single major instrument. This complex is serviced by an independent air conditioner which controls humidity and smog which is a problem locally. Presently a Perkin-Elmer Model 21 I R spectrophotometer, Cary Model 14 combined range spectrophotometer, Hitachi-Perkin-Elmer RMUGD mass spectrometer, Siemens Elmiscop 1A electron microscope, and a Varian A60 NMR spectrometer with timeaveraging computer and spin decoupler are housed here. The physical chemistry laboratory is provided with a vacuum line, distillation facilities, and the means for carrying out a variety of experiments under temperature control. A radiochemistry and biology area provides two laboratories with all stainless steel work space, a counting room,
Figure 2.
Sewer Laboratory-Room
9-Phyricol
and Advanced Analytical
Figure 3.
Seaver Loborotory-Room
218-Advonced
Orgonic Loboro-
Laborotorv.
tory.
and a highly shielded room housing a TAIC neutron generator which is operated remotely along with its 400 chan~~el analyzer for data processing. Also in the radiochemistry area is a Packard Model 3000 liquid scintillation counter with automatic sample changer. The second floor accommodates work in organic and biochemistry. Here there are several faculty research laboratories in addition to rooms 210, 21012, and 212 which are for undergraduat,e and postdoctoral research. The special instruments in the biochemistry laboratory include a Rlodel L preparative and Model E analytical ultracentrifuge, a Technicon automatic amino acid analyzer, a Savant high voltage electrophoresis apparatus, and a Beckman ratio recording spectrophotometer. Also on this level is a cold room with two chambers, one for temperatures above O°C and one In the colder room for temperatures down to -20°C. is a set of four chests which can he individually set for temperatures down to -70°C. A high-pressure lahoratory with two barricaded enclosures for studying reactions under pressures up to 60,000 psi is available for instruction and research. Rocker equipment as well as a stirred autoclave is included. A special room for thin film and paper chromatography is complete for all types of work. A room is also set aside for countercurrent distribution work. All of the laboratory desks on this floor have built-in Variacs. Particular attention was given to the problems of safety. The use of open flames has been minimized by equipping all desks with heating mantles and magnetic stirrer-heaters. More fume hoods than are u e ually used in undergraduate work have been installed to free the laboratories of organic vapors, lowering the chance of explosions and avoiding prolonged breathing of chemical fumes by students and faculty. Each student's station in all organic courses is adjacent to a hood. Figure 3 shows the large hoods used in organic research and advanced instruction and Figure 4 shows the type of hood used in the introductory sophomore organic course. I n advanced work each student has at least six running feet of hood space as shown in Figure 3. For introductory work two students share the four foot hood shown in Figure 4. Ordinary distillations are performed on the desk top with the receiver being
placed in thc port at the side of the hood. The hood is large enough so that two experiments involving refluxing can be run simultaneously. When large nr~nlbersof fume hoods are ill operatioo it is necessary to introduce unconditioned air into the laboratories t,o maintain air balance. We have attempted to minimize this need by putting both high and low speeds on the blower systems of each of the large hoods (Fig. 3). For most work the slow ventilation is sufficient. The utilities for the various floors pass through channels on either side of the central hall on the first and second floors. Since all of this space was not needed for this purpose some has been set aside on each floor for storage. On the second floor several locations are used for tank stations from which gases such as nitrogen, helium, etc., call be piped to the individual desks and hoods of the various lahs. A central control panel for all fume hoods has been provided as a ronservation device. From this panel one can see at a glance which hoods are in use and a central switch can be used to turn off all hoods. However, each hood has its own lock by which the user can override the central control for overnight use. Teaching Through Resebrch
If a college is to make a serious attempt to teach through research, it must have a faculty with ideas
Figure 4.
Sewer Laboratory-Room
223-Elementary
Organic Loboro-
tory.
Volume 43, Number 1 1 , November 1966
/
61 5
worthy of the time of today's well-informed student. The student who follows Scientific Amen'mn or even the scientific articles in the popular press is not attracted by unimaginative research lacking in significance. The colleges, therefore, which take upon themselves the great responsibility of instructing the brightest of today's youth in science must have science facilities which will enable good men to pursue interesting work without impossible handicaps. More than a good building full of instruments is necessary. The instruments must be mastered and kept going and the faculty must also have time to keep up with the avalanche of good papers and many new books which are published each year even in a special-
616
/
Journd o f Chemicol Education
ized field such as organic or physical chernistty. Thus the center now has three machinists, two electronic technicians, two general technicians, a part-time glass blower, and a chemical storeroom manager. Each department has its own library and its own full-time secretary. An active research atmosphere is maintained in the science center throughout the year by a group of about fifteen postdoctoral associates and technicians associated with faculty research projects. Direct support for research or postdoctoral associates comes from outside the college. At present the chemistry department has outside research support of ahout $90,000 per year.
