Universal Application of a GS-MS in Science Education: Integrating Courses and Programs Using Instrumental Teaching Assistants

College Of Wooster, Wooster OH

Investigators

Abstract

Chemistry (12) This project integrates and expands the teaching of instrumental techniques to pre-college and college students in a way that uses students to teach students. Our goals are two-fold: to develop science literacy in both pre-college and non-science major college students and to enhance the education of our chemistry majors by generating a means by which they will be held accountable for their own learning. We are attempting to achieve these goals in a singular effort by instituting Instrumental Teaching Assistants; these positions are staffed by upper-class chemistry majors. The responsibilities of the Instrumental Teaching Assistants include learning how to use the instrumentation through their coursework and apprenticeship, acting as the principal persons involved in the up-keep of instruments, and teaching pre-college and non-science major peers with faculty assistance. The initial program is designed specifically around a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer which has nearly universal application in all of our current programs, classes, and laboratories. In this manner we are creating a diverse community of users and learners centered about the Instrumental Teaching Assistants. These Assistants are adapting a number of experiments from the educational literature in order to provide experiments that allow students to learn the process of scientific investigation including the power and limitations of instrumental techniques, and, for science majors, also to learn specific principles and independent investigation