1. Develop and practice observational skills:
· Develop observational skills for making discoveries in the laboratory
· Recognize when an experiment is not working and be able to adjust amounts of reagents, conditions, equipment, etc., to solve the problems and make the experiment work successfully
· Record observations in a logical order in research styled notebook while performing the experiment in the laboratory
· Document experimental and theoretical work including laboratory procedures, experimental conditions, materials used, equipment or software used, data and the results
· Respect and acknowledge the intellectual property of others.
2. Prepare for laboratory work:
· Come to lab prepared to work and plan to make the most of your laboratory experience
· Read and study the laboratory manual and other reading assignments carefully
· Research topics that are unknown to you by studying the published scientific literature at the library and online
· Research and document laboratory cautions and hazards before starting lab work by consulting standard references such as the CRC, MSDS, and Merck Index
· Plan experiments wisely so that you can work carefully, efficiently and successfully.
3. Prepare professional scientific reports:
· Recognize that writing is a serious process that develops from the practice of writing draft and revision copies to produce a final polished report, intelligent and understandable
· Compose and generate professional scientific reports that include well crafted sections on: abstract, introduction, experimental, results, discussion, references, supplemental information
· Develop a concise scientific writing style that is suitable for publication by practice and example from the literature, and with guidance from peer and instructor review
· Critically review others’ work and offer constructive suggestions for improvement on style and content
· Communicate with instructor for their feedback on how to improve report writing, critical thinking in particular
· Perform a statistical analysis of your results and calculate confidence limits to describe the precision and accuracy of your data
· Compare and contrast your results with published results and use sound scientific principles as a basis for justifying differences, and offering suggestions for improvement if applicable
· Prepare reports using a word processor
· Prepare proper scientific tables, figures and charts using a spreadsheet and learn how to incorporate these data directly into the report
· Use commercial drawing programs like ISIS draw or ChemWindows to draw chemical structures and reaction schemes and import into reports
· Critically evaluate the quality of the experimental results and suggest what improvements might be made in the future.
4. Operate scientific instruments & softwares:
· Operate a variety of scientific instruments and equipment from start-up to shut-down to get meaningful scientific data. Examples of the scientific instruments available for use in Experimental Chemistry II CH 464 & 464H are: FTIR, FTNMR, dipole moment system, high vacuum lines, diode array UV Visible, Cary 219 high resolution UV-Vis, digital oscilloscope, Nd-YAG pulsed laser, thermocouples, dye laser, and SPEX scanning monochromator.
· Recognize typical output from each instrument and be able to optimize adjustments in gain, detector voltage, scan range, etc., to produce optimized output
· Use specialized instrument software to operate spectrometers and set instrument controls, such as slits, band pass, sensitivity, and select the output mode
· Learn to use computational chemistry software programs, such as Gaussian 09 and HyperChem 8.0, to predict geometries and energies for molecules using semi-empirical and ab initio theory
· Recognize the performance characteristics for the types of cells and solvents used in each instrument
· Recognize the useful concentration ranges for each analysis and know the limitations of each instrument
· Operate a mechanical vacuum pump to produce a high vacuum
· Use cryogenics and temperature baths to adjust the temperature of an instrument or cell
· Use compressed gas cylinders equipped with regulators safely
· Adjust stopcocks on a high vacuum line to control the vacuum and flow of gases.
5. Develop teamwork to divide project duties ensuring efficiency and quality of the final results:
· Be a contributor to your group with intelligence and good heart
· Work together for the common good of the project and meet designated schedules
· Respect the opinions of others and recognize that different perspectives on a situation can lead to an improved understanding of the problem at hand.
6. Design templates using spreadsheets:
· Compose templates consisting of mathematical formulas to perform routine arithmetic calculations for multiple data points
· Construct templates that make use of multiple step calculations and mathematical functions to perform higher level mathematical analysis of data
· Prepare proper graphs (charts) and use them to discover trends and make predictions
· Construct calibration curves and forecast results
· Perform linear regression and other curve fitting for serial data
· Prepare publication quality charts and tables.
7. Use electronic forms of communication:
· Use email to correspond with instructors and peers
· Prepare and submit electronic pre-labs and quizzes posted on the web
· Critically evaluate web information for truth and use Internet as scientific resource
· Consult course web page for syllabus and supplemental reading assignments and other course-related materials.
8. Critically search the scientific literature for information:
· Conduct an efficient search of the scientific literature both on paper and online journals
· Use cumulative indices to locate primary literature
· Use Internet search engines to locate and evaluate scientific information
· Use journal retrieval services such as SciFinder Scholar
· List and cite references in journal style reports according to ACS conventions, e.g. with EndNote.