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We suggest that many life science students are often are "turned off" to
all chemistry by their experiences in traditional freshman chemistry laboratories.
We have organized and taught an alternative freshman chemistry laboratory
designed to appeal to those in the life sciences while maintaining a rigor
that may be unusual for traditional freshman laboratories. (CH204AV).
This course provides an intensive, in-depth, integrated, team-oriented
laboratory course to teach students how to make and evaluate quantitative
chemical measurements in biological systems. Emphases are placed
on essential analytical laboratory techniques, computerized data acquisition
and analysis, and decision making skills. The experiments utilize
common chemical techniques used by the life science disciplines, and the
laboratory samples were mostly drawn from the supermarket. We believe
that the approaches used in this alternative version of a freshman
laboratory were successful and we have measures to support our belief.
The external faculty reviewers were impressed. The students did well and
were enthusiastic. When compared to the standard freshman chemistry
laboratory course there was a marked improvement in student attitudes toward
chemistry and approximately a 60% reduction in the drop rate compared the
drop rate of a parallel but more classical oriented freshman laboratory
course. Based upon our experiences, we suggest that our chemistry
colleagues seriously consider revising the freshman chemistry laboratory
courses at their institutions. The results can be rewarding.
History of CH204AV at University of Texas at Austin
Spring 1998 - 1 section of self selected pre-med majors. One faculty
instructor and one TA.
Fall 1998 - 4 sections students mostly randomly selected. One
faculty instructor and 2 TAs.
Spring 1999 - 8 sections - Course in catalogue. - One faculty
instructor and 4 TAs.
Fall 1999 - 7 sections - Course in catalogue. - One faculty
instructor and 4 TAs.
Spring 2000- 8 sections - Course in catalogue. - One faculty
instructor and 4 TAs.
Fall 2000 - 8 sections - Course in catalogue. - One graduate
student instructor and 4 TAs.
CH 204AV Lectures
| 1 |
Introduction |
| 2 |
Absorption Spectrophotometry |
| 3 |
Statistics for Chemical Analyses in Biological Systems |
| 4 |
pH, Acids, Bases and Buffers |
| 5 |
Detection Reactions |
| 6 |
Blanking in Colorimetric Reactions |
| 7 |
Enzymes as Reagents |
| 8 |
Chromatography as a Tool of Measurement of Analytes in Complex Mixtures |
| 9 |
Measurement of Enzyme Activities |
| 10 |
An Overview of Chemical Analyses in Biological Systems |
CH 204AV Laboratories
| # |
Title |
Title |
| 1-3 |
Spectroscopy |
I: Spectra & Additivity of Spectra
II: Response Curves & Standard Curves
III: Analysis of Unknown Concentrations |
| 4-6 |
pH Measurements and Effect of pH on Spectra |
Titrations of Strong Acids and Weak Acids, Quantitative Titrations |
| 7-10 |
Colorimetric Reactions |
Blanks - Unsuitable Matrices - Analyses of Unknowns - Selection
of Methods - Method of Standard Additions - Enzymes as Reagents |
| 11 |
Liquid Chromatorgraphy, Spectroscopy and Coloimetric Reactions |
Identification and Quantification of the Components of a Mixture |
| 12 |
Measurement of Enzyme Activity |
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Student Quote -
“This class has taught me more about critical thinking and tying in
concepts presented in several different subjects than any other class.”
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