I'm teaching first year chemistry at the moment, and for our purposes, computing is mainly a tool for generating reports and doing data analysis. Most data analysis in chemistry can and is done with Excel. I've read other posts here trashing the use of Excel in science, but really, for what we use it for it is just fine. Don't worry about teaching the students how to use it, as we can cover what we need them to know in an hour. We mainly do stuff like linear regressions for calibration curves, simple adding and subtracting of values, and other basic data manipulation that is much quicker in a spreadsheet.
Many instruments are interfaced with computers for automation or data analysis, but again, this is something we can quickly teach them when they need the instrument. Being computer literate would be helpful, but I think most students will already be up to speed just based on their interactions with computing in their daily lives. Sure, you could show them how to do computer modeling with chem draw, or do modeling with jmol, but I would suspect that would bore them. Those programs are mostly useful for creating presentations or writing reports. Again, this is stuff that we can show them how to do in 1 lab period, and it does not have a large impact on their understanding of chemistry.
If you would like to make a project that would really interest them, you could build a spectrometer in class that they could use to do something like an EDTA titration to determine the hardness of a water sample, or determining the molar absorptivity of some food dye. For the food dye experiement, you could them have them determine the concentration of the dye in a gatorade sample or something similar. Spectrometers can be simple to build and very cool to observe and use. The project would not cost very much either. I built my own as an undergraduate in an Instrumental Analysis course, but I think that with the aid of an instructor, the lab could be geared for younger students. You would most likely do the sodering, and only show them the circuit analysis. You could keep it very general.
To keep this simple, you would want some sort of monochromatic light source. In my lab we had an argon laser available, but a smaller presentation laser pointer would also work. You could also canibalize the laser out of a cd-rom or dvd-rom. The principle is that you will shine light through a sample container (some container such as a plastic that does not absorb the wavelength of light that you are using for your analysis, IE the color of your laser pointer), and you will detect the light that passes through. The light detection could be done with a photoresistor (resistivity increases as the light hits the photoresistor). By measuring the voltages with a voltmeter, and creating a calibration curve with standards, the students will be able to determine the molar absorptivity of the dye, and then the concentration of dye in the gatorade sample.
A cool thing about this experiment is that it would bring many different topics that you would hopefully teach anyway into a neat and relevent package. You would talk about Beer's law, and the wavelength dependent nature of the absorption of light. You would talk about the need for standards and how they increase the accuracy of the measurements (versus just measuring one data point to determine the molar absorptivity value), and this would spring board into a brief discussion of statistics and how they are relevant for actual lab work. You could hit a little into electronics, which is something that a chemistry student must learn to get the degree, and is something they will definitely apply if they decide to do analytical chemistry past undergrad. You could have them build the housing, and do stuff like paint the inside of the instrument with mat black paint in order to absorb stray photons that manage to enter the instrument. You could talk about signal to noise ratios, and how they are impacted by reducing stray light entering the instrument.
I think doing an experiment like this would greatly enhance many
For $10 more a month, an alarm company with hundreds of dispatchers can respond to your alarms for you. Tough for you to respond to the hold up alarm going off at your house, when you're the one that tripped it.
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I'm teaching first year chemistry at the moment, and for our purposes, computing is mainly a tool for generating reports and doing data analysis. Most data analysis in chemistry can and is done with Excel. I've read other posts here trashing the use of Excel in science, but really, for what we use it for it is just fine. Don't worry about teaching the students how to use it, as we can cover what we need them to know in an hour. We mainly do stuff like linear regressions for calibration curves, simple adding and subtracting of values, and other basic data manipulation that is much quicker in a spreadsheet. Many instruments are interfaced with computers for automation or data analysis, but again, this is something we can quickly teach them when they need the instrument. Being computer literate would be helpful, but I think most students will already be up to speed just based on their interactions with computing in their daily lives. Sure, you could show them how to do computer modeling with chem draw, or do modeling with jmol, but I would suspect that would bore them. Those programs are mostly useful for creating presentations or writing reports. Again, this is stuff that we can show them how to do in 1 lab period, and it does not have a large impact on their understanding of chemistry. If you would like to make a project that would really interest them, you could build a spectrometer in class that they could use to do something like an EDTA titration to determine the hardness of a water sample, or determining the molar absorptivity of some food dye. For the food dye experiement, you could them have them determine the concentration of the dye in a gatorade sample or something similar. Spectrometers can be simple to build and very cool to observe and use. The project would not cost very much either. I built my own as an undergraduate in an Instrumental Analysis course, but I think that with the aid of an instructor, the lab could be geared for younger students. You would most likely do the sodering, and only show them the circuit analysis. You could keep it very general. To keep this simple, you would want some sort of monochromatic light source. In my lab we had an argon laser available, but a smaller presentation laser pointer would also work. You could also canibalize the laser out of a cd-rom or dvd-rom. The principle is that you will shine light through a sample container (some container such as a plastic that does not absorb the wavelength of light that you are using for your analysis, IE the color of your laser pointer), and you will detect the light that passes through. The light detection could be done with a photoresistor (resistivity increases as the light hits the photoresistor). By measuring the voltages with a voltmeter, and creating a calibration curve with standards, the students will be able to determine the molar absorptivity of the dye, and then the concentration of dye in the gatorade sample. A cool thing about this experiment is that it would bring many different topics that you would hopefully teach anyway into a neat and relevent package. You would talk about Beer's law, and the wavelength dependent nature of the absorption of light. You would talk about the need for standards and how they increase the accuracy of the measurements (versus just measuring one data point to determine the molar absorptivity value), and this would spring board into a brief discussion of statistics and how they are relevant for actual lab work. You could hit a little into electronics, which is something that a chemistry student must learn to get the degree, and is something they will definitely apply if they decide to do analytical chemistry past undergrad. You could have them build the housing, and do stuff like paint the inside of the instrument with mat black paint in order to absorb stray photons that manage to enter the instrument. You could talk about signal to noise ratios, and how they are impacted by reducing stray light entering the instrument. I think doing an experiment like this would greatly enhance many
I have already left an negative review on a Belkin product on Amazon. If this story makes you mad, you should do the same.
By discussing this as a possibility, I bet a lot of people are re-thinking getting tested for AIDS. The doctor can't rat you out if he doesn't know.
For $10 more a month, an alarm company with hundreds of dispatchers can respond to your alarms for you. Tough for you to respond to the hold up alarm going off at your house, when you're the one that tripped it.
I swear, I must have a perverted form of dyslexia.