Educational Resources for Early Inclusion of Analytical Techniques in Undergraduate Education

Abstract:

Early exposure to STEM research experiences in undergraduate courses can foster lasting student engagement. We describe resources developed as part of a program at Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC) available for use to aid educators wishing to include laboratory topics in their curriculum. The resources were developed as part of a larger NSF grant to produce Open Educational Resource (OER) modules to support adapting analytical techniques to undergraduate courses.

These resources include videos produced with the aid of students and featuring creative commons (CC) licensing and closed captioning for accessibility. The videos focus on techniques used to create thin sections for optical microscopy and to introduce students to the possibilities of Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) with Energy Dispersive Spectrometry (EDS). The SEM videos were part of a pilot project including instrumental chemical analysis in the introductory chemistry curriculum. Seeing the interest of students in the video aspect of the project highlights the role students can have in developing STEM resources when coupled with the ubiquity of video cameras in phones.

Also produced at NVCC, an online resource for geology students is presented. The website concept gestated in a second-year optical mineralogy lab and the wish to provide students alternative access to mineralogical data than purchasing additional texts. It has since grown to host optical and structural data as well as images of rocks and minerals at multiple scales in hand-sample and under optical microscopy.

Student involvement in hands-on analytical work requires elevated problem-solving and critical-thinking skills separate from those needed to perform simplified laboratory examples where steps to reach a goal are clearly defined. Instruments such as an SEM or the machines needed to produce thin sections are often reserved for upper-level or graduate-level students. But students set their sites on what they can see. By providing early exposure to advanced topics the bar is set high enough to encompass their growth potential.