Chemical Education Today edited by
Association Report: 2YC3
Ann Cartwright
Workplace Skills Taught in a Simulated
San Jacinto College, Central Campus Division of Science & Mathematics Pasadena, TX 77501-2007
Analytical Department by Susan Sonchik Marine
Chemical technology programs prepare students for industrial employment. To identify the specific skills expected of entry-level chemical laboratory technicians and process technicians, the American Chemical Society conducted a study that developed the Voluntary Industry Standards (1), a consensus list of knowledge and skills needed by chemical technicians to work effectively in industry. This list of skills, coupled with local industrial input (2), forms the starting point for curriculum development of a chemical technology program. Equally weighted with laboratory skills such as instrumental analysis and chemical synthesis are other workplace skills including communication and computer skills, critical thinking, and ethical behavior. Our Chemical Technology Program is a 2-year program that progressively builds lab and workplace skills. The required chemistry courses are Foundations of the Chemical Process Industry, General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry, Chemical Technology I, and Chemical Technology II. Lab experiments are often inquiry-based, requiring good laboratory skills, critical thinking, and communication skills. Chemical Technology II However, there is a major difference between being a student and being an industrial technician. To allow students to practice being industrial technicians, I designed the Chemical Technology II course under the format of an industrial analytical department. The course is divided into three components: the first is a traditional one hour per week lecture class; the second is five hour per week of lab; and the third is a one hour per week “department meeting”. Workplace skills such as accountability, responsibility, time management, appropriate forms of written communication, and various forms of oral communications are practiced through the weekly “department meeting”. Class topics include sampling, sample preparation, quality assurance, method validation, and advanced instrumentation.
Technical Support Lab The laboratory is set up as a typical technical support analytical laboratory. Samples are secured in a locked cabinet under full chain-of-custody (3). Workload is assigned to individual students with due dates for the final report to the customer; most are multiple-session assignments. Caffeine tablet quality control (QC) is tracked all semester by students using high performance liquid chromatography; full QC protocols are used and results are plotted in statistical process control charts. Critical thinking skills are developed as students address problems such as the identifica1448
tion of contaminated solvents by infrared spectroscopy, the separation of complex mixtures by fractional distillation, and the identification of components in Marvel Mystery Oil®. Round robin verification of sampling protocols (4, 5) is another example of standard industrial procedures used in this course. Computer skills are routinely called upon for statistical analysis of data, calculations with spreadsheets, graphing, and making QC charts.
The Department Meeting Since the lab is a typical technical support department with all technicians working independently or on team projects, there must be a mechanism for coordinating work assignments and sharing results. Students, as members of the CHM 215 industrial “department”, each share their accomplishments and problems. The department manager (the instructor) makes announcements, reviews company and department status, and assigns work for the coming week. The weekly department meeting provides a real-world environment for practicing workplace skills. The weekly report of Work in Process (WIP status) builds informal oral communication skills in a small group setting. Formal presentations of project plans and results are given by each student several times during the semester. Written communication skills are expanded by using typical industrial report styles for conveying results to clients. The weekly department meeting requires that the students practice proper etiquette, collegiality, and ethical behavior. As the instructor, I find it interesting to watch students correct a peer who violates acceptable behavior toward them as co-workers. Corrections have addressed interruptions, tardiness, inappropriate vocabulary, and politically incorrect language. Other advanced topics of Good Laboratory Practice—personal responsibilities and teamwork, working within a project plan, expectations, ethics, and success in the workplace—have been practiced through department meetings. Factors Affecting the Success of the Department Meeting There are four major factors affecting the success of the department meeting: the formality of the meeting room; the use of an agenda; the frequency, time, and duration of meetings; and the accountability of the students. The formality of the meeting room sets the tone for the meeting. In industry, our department meetings were held in conference rooms. During the development of this concept, I have held the meeting in the chemistry lab, a biology lab, classrooms, and a conference room. The chemistry lab offers a great disadvantage because the students prefer to work on their experiments rather than attend a meeting. The biology
Journal of Chemical Education • Vol. 78 No. 11 November 2001 • JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu
Chemical Education Today
Association Report: 2YC3 lab contains a variety of distractions. A classroom offers the advantage of blackboard and overhead projector, but if the room contains desks the students automatically assume a “student” attitude rather than an “industrial technician” attitude and the image of manager quickly dissolves into that of teacher. However if the assigned classroom has tables and chairs it can be configured into a conference room with members sitting around one large table. While a conference room adds an air of formality to the meeting, a conference-style classroom is very workable. All are equal around the table, the presenter is at the head or at the projector, the student mode is not ingrained here, and teamwork prevails. This conference-style set up is critical especially if an official conference room is not available. Formality is set by the room but is upheld by the manager. Even if lab sessions are exceedingly informal, the meetings need to be conducted on a formal level. One of the purposes of the department meeting is to expose students to a variety of industrial experiences and to build their comfort and ability to function effectively in those settings. In industry, the manager’s attire and behavior set the tone for department meetings, as does using a more formal language and posture. The formality may feel strange during the first few meetings, but once set the tone becomes less stilted. Students need the opportunity to learn to function in this formal setting. A department meeting will not be a success without an agenda! Initially, a typed agenda was distributed at the beginning of each meeting, and topics and presenters were identified for that meeting. This did not work: too many students came unprepared. So, the agenda was electronically mailed to all department members several days in advance of the meeting and to keep us on task it was projected overhead during the meeting. Just as in industry, this procedure was most productive: announce topics and assignments for the next meeting, distribute the agenda in advance, and project it during the meeting. The frequency, time, and duration of the meetings are as important to the success of the department meeting as the location and agenda. Weekly meetings provided sufficient preparation time for formal presentations, yielded productive discussion, and yet occurred often enough to assign workload in a timely manner. The time when the meeting is held also proved critical. Immediately after lab is a very poor choice; if students finish lab early they deserve to leave, and if students are still monitoring an experiment they are not participating in the meeting. Immediately before lab is a poor time because students are preparing for lab. An independent time slot separate from the scheduled lab sessions provided the attention and concentration needed for a productive department meeting. The duration of the meeting is another time factor. Initially, I scheduled the meetings for 30 minutes. Even with a small department, 30 minutes is too short for work assignments, WIP, and any discussion. One hour has worked much more effectively and allowed sufficient time for formal presentations and discussion. The final factor affecting the success of the department meeting is accountability. Students must be responsible for
attendance and punctuality, for their presentations, for the weekly WIP status, and for the timely completion of their workload. These are important workplace skills. For students who need motivation, these factors can be graded and points deducted when they are irresponsible. As the semester progresses and the students become comfortable with acting as employees, they start to police themselves. But at those stressful, over-committed times of the semester (before midterms and finals) a friendly reminder from the manager helps prevent student irresponsibility. Evaluation of Curriculum Design The curriculum was designed to teach laboratory skills, communication skills, computer skills, and workplace factors such as teamwork and ethics. Mastery of laboratory skills (correct sampling of chemicals, wet chemical analyses, instrumental analyses, and optimizing operations) is easy to evaluate and document. For example, students demonstrated accurate results in the analysis of samples with
