Realizing Workplace Skills in Instrumental Analysis

Undergraduates entering the workforce often lack key technical skills. This paper describes an approach to teaching an instrumental analysis laboratory that assists students in attaining expertise needed for the work place. The course provides experiences with life-long benefits by developing good laboratory practices in concert with protocols common to commercial and research laboratories. The course is divided into two parts: development and evaluation of standard operating procedures (SOPs) for analytical instruments, and a real-world research project using at least one instrument. During the SOP phase, student groups write a protocol and determine operating specifications for an instrument they have learned about in lecture the previous semester. Subsequently, two other groups evaluate each SOP and edit the corresponding protocol. Student groups write a complete research proposal for the research project portion of the course. Because SOPs have been written for most instruments, students can focus their efforts on the research project rather than focusing on learning a new instrument. The course concludes with students presenting written and oral reports.