Project Plan
Table of Contents:
-
Project Description
- Project Description: Project Features
-
Evaluation Overview
- Evaluation Overview: Evaluation Purposes, Information Sources and Sampling
-
Evaluation Design
- Design: Methodological Approach, Information Sources and Sampling, Data Collection Procedures and Schedule
-
Analysis Process
- Results and Recommendations: Stakeholder Review and Utilization
Principle Investigator: Jason Evans
Institution: University of Massachusetts Boston
NSF Award #: DUE0125712
Return to Table of
Contents
Project Description:
The Chemistry Department at the University of Massachusetts Boston is developing a project-based Instrumental Analysis course to foster creativity and team work, improve the ability to evaluate data from scientific journals, and develop technical writing skills. We believe concentrating on these objectives will produce well-trained research scientists.
The major components of this course include:
- A series of four projects: Students work in groups of 3-5. One week before the first week of a project, they are given packets that includes a brief overview of the project, clearly defined tasks (or goals), and several literature articles relating to the project. During the first week of laboratory they work together to develop a plan of attack. The next two weeks of lab they carry out the plan of attack to complete the tasks set forth in the packet.
- Lab reports and revisions: Students turn in a comprehensive lab report that is structured in the same manner as an article in Analytical Chemistry. These reports are graded. Students must make the necessary corrections, revise their reports, and resubmit their papers. The revision process is a key component of this course. It is not a matter of merely making corrections but actually revising their own work. It is possible for a student to get a lower grade on the revision.
- Tuesdays: 1.4 hr lecture on an instrumental method.
- Thursdays: Literature assignments: The students are given an article from the current literature and a series of questions to be answered. They turn in their assignments and we discuss the article as a class.
- Presentations on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the last half of the semester: Each student presents a Powerpoint presentation to the class on a current advance in Instrumental Methods based on a current literature article.
Return to Table of
Contents
Evaluation Overview:
The NSF award was in the A&I track of the CCLI program. Funds were used to purchase an LC-MS in support of the development of the project. The instrument was purchased in October 2002 and used in the Instrumental Methods course in the Spring of 2003. Success of the project will be evaluated in both the short term and long term. Short term evaluation will focus improving the structure of the course. Long term evaluation will focus on comparing the four-year periods before and after the implementation of the project-based approach in terms of the quantity and quality of undergraduate research, placement of our undergraduates in industry and graduate schools, and post graduate surveys.
Return to Table of
Contents
Evaluation Design
Short term:
Both teaching evaluations and a survey that was specifically designed to test the extent in which the project objectives were achieved are used to evaluate the course. The surveys focus on course content and structure rather than the instructor or student evaluation. These will be given to the students toward the end of the course. These evaluation instruments will be used to make adjustments to the course in subsequent years.
Long term:
We expect the implementation of the proposal to have the following measurable effects:
- Increase the number of students participating in undergraduate research.
- Improve the quality of undergraduate research being performed at U. Mass Boston.
- Increase the number of students being accepted to graduate and medical school programs.
- Enhance placement of our students into the local biotech industry.
The quality of research will be judged from the abstracts that students submit to local and national meetings during these four-year periods. Another set of surveys will be developed and sent to recent graduates (2 years), and will inquire about which undergraduate chemistry experiences were most useful in preparing them for their future endeavors. These surveys will ask the graduates to rank 8 specific aspects of their undergraduate programs that they have found to be most important in their preparation.
Return to Table of
Contents
Analysis Process
Suggestions from teaching evaluations and in-class surveys will be used to fine tune the course for subsequent semesters. The long term evaluation data will be useful in testing the extent in which the course objectives have been met. This data will also be used to illustrate areas in the curriculum that need to be strengthened and those that need to be emulated in other areas.
As a department we are considering expanding the project-based laboratory model to include all of our upper-division laboratory courses. A series of integrated laboratory courses that are inter-subdisciplinary in nature will be developed for the Junior and Senior years of our chemistry major track. The degree of success achieved in the current project will guide the development of the integrated lab series project.
Return to Table of
Contents
|
