Writing Instrument Profiles for Mastery of Instrumental Analysis

King, Daniel; Fernandez, Jorge; Nalliah, Ruth E.

doi:10.1021/ed200645t

Cited by 5 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…The students designed their own experiments, drew block diagrams of instruments, gained hands-on experience with the instruments, taught their peers, performed oral quizzes, wrote about their work, and then gave oral presentations in lecture. These processes have been demonstrated in the literature to be effective ways of teaching student mastery of instrumental analysis, and this study provides additional evidence …”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 63%

“…These processes have been demonstrated in the literature to be effective ways of teaching student mastery of instrumental analysis, and this study provides additional evidence. 21 The students did make mistakes; none of their procedures was perfect, yet in general these imperfections led to greater learning. Easy success is not worth the low price paid; true learning requires the students to confront their misunderstandings and revise their practices to match the evidence presented.…”

Section: Overall Student Engagement and Receptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Teaching Students To Be Instrumental in Analysis: Peer-Led Team Learning in the Instrumental Laboratory

et al. 2017

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Many instrumental analysis students develop limited skills as the course rushes through different instruments to ensure familiarity with as many methodologies as possible. This broad coverage comes at the expense of superficiality of learning and a lack of student confidence and engagement. To mitigate these issues, a peer-led team learning model was developed to give each student in-depth experiences operating and troubleshooting six common instruments. Electronic cigarette solutions were chosen for all work because of their current relevance. Small groups became "class experts" on their assigned instrument. Students were responsible for teaching their peers how to utilize their instrument for experimentation. Each student rotated through their peer's instruments, learned to apply the knowledge they gained from one instrument to others, while they answered questions from peers. The students developed troubleshooting and communication skillsfoundational tools for chemists. This model proved successful in promoting cognitive flexibility and critical thinking about experimental design, as reflected by oral quizzes and peer teaching. This adaptation of peer-led team learning helped engage students, promote confidence, and a facilitate a deeper understanding of instrumentation.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 63%

Section: Overall Student Engagement and Receptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Teaching Students To Be Instrumental in Analysis: Peer-Led Team Learning in the Instrumental Laboratory

et al. 2017

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“…Furthermore, the lab component was organized around the idea of analyzing the same sample and analyte with different methods for the same purpose. Others followed similar approaches, often in combination with collaborative learning in small groups, by tasking students to compare instruments, write instrument profiles and manuals, evaluate techniques, or use different methods to address a single problem or question. − Together, these educational approaches aim to teach students how to make informed decisions to select appropriate methods for the analytical problem at hand by judging capabilities and limitations of individual methods. However, for effective training in analytical chemistry, students not only need to acquire specific knowledge about analytical methods, but also should plan and carry out (quasi-) independent analytical investigations to develop related skills.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Incorporating a Student-Centered Approach with Collaborative Learning into Methods in Quantitative Element Analysis

et al. 2020

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This paper summarizes a project seminar in analytical chemistry that includes a method comparison approach and collaborative learning. In this project seminar, 12 students worked in four groups, each of which focused on one method for quantitative element analysis, including flame atomic absorption spectroscopy, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy, and X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy. The seminar was structured into two phases. In the first phase, students became familiar with their method and instrumentation through characterizing the method’s capabilities for the analysis of a steel reference sample and then sharing and comparing results between groups. In the second phase, all groups used insights gained during the first phase to design and perform experiments with their methods to solve an analytical challenge. Specifically, the aim of each group was to quantify major, minor, and trace element concentrations from periglacial sediment layers from the hills southeast of Zürich, Switzerland. At the end of phase two, the student-groups presented and compared their results in a joint public poster presentation. Assessment was based on material produced by the participants: posters, teaching materials, method profiles, and written reports. The course evaluation indicates a high satisfaction with the course. The student-centered approach enabled students to get extensive hands-on experience in order to acquire subject-specific skills as well as soft skills. It is well-suited for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students for specialization in analytical chemistry. Further insights, observations, potential for improvement, and limitations are discussed.

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“…Instrumental analytical chemistry is an important educational topic and offers many projects for upper-level undergraduate students. − These projects introduce modern instrumental analysis and further the development of student skills. One example is the Western Washington University Instrument Center, which introduces instrument training programs for new students .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Materials Characterization Central Laboratory: An Open-Ended Laboratory Program for Fourth-Year Undergraduate and Graduate Students

et al. 2016

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Teaching materials characterization to support student research projects requires a systematic educational approach, because characterization involves a combination of analysis instruments. As analytical instruments are expensive, it is difficult to provide multiple sets simultaneously. An effective educational program allows students to select their own research materials to characterize and apply their personal strategies of instrumental analysis. These strategies are designed around the purposes of the analytical instruments, e.g., molecular structure analysis, crystal structure analysis, morphology assessment, surface analysis, elemental analysis, and thermal analysis. An open-ended laboratory complements this educational purpose. Here, we report on an open-ended laboratory program for fourth-year undergraduate and graduate students at the Materials Characterization Central Laboratory at Waseda University (Tokyo, Japan). The goals of our open-ended laboratory program are to enable students to (1) conduct instrumental analysis, (2) operate analytical instruments, and (3) interpret their data. A team led by a supervisor and laboratory staff offers students a flexible program. This flexibility can be applied to various research fields, such as macromolecular chemistry, inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, physical chemistry, electrochemistry, physics, catalyst chemistry, biomaterials science, and chemical engineering. These diverse research fields demonstrate the feasibility of applying our open-ended laboratory program to student research projects.

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Writing Instrument Profiles for Mastery of Instrumental Analysis

Cited by 5 publications

References 20 publications

Teaching Students To Be Instrumental in Analysis: Peer-Led Team Learning in the Instrumental Laboratory

Teaching Students To Be Instrumental in Analysis: Peer-Led Team Learning in the Instrumental Laboratory

Incorporating a Student-Centered Approach with Collaborative Learning into Methods in Quantitative Element Analysis

The Materials Characterization Central Laboratory: An Open-Ended Laboratory Program for Fourth-Year Undergraduate and Graduate Students

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