General Chemistry I/II – Authentic Research Experience in Snow Chemistry (CHEM 125/126)
Students participated in active Pratt lab research in snow chemistry through a semester-long project. To our knowledge, this is the first curriculum-embedded undergraduate research experience for introductory environmental chemistry. The instructional team includes Prof. Pratt, one postdoctoral teaching fellow, two-four undergraduate assistants for peer mentoring, and two future faculty graduate student instructors, who spend half of their teaching time on course development. Students are guided through all steps of the research process, including hypothesis development, data collection and processing, and interpretation of results in the context of scientific literature, manuscript writing, and the culmination of a public poster symposium, judged by CSElUM. General chemistry concepts are integrated through snow chemistry experiments (e.g., pH and buffering capacity on snow and sea ice) that explore active Pratt Lab research questions. A key course component is a visit to the Pratt research laboratory to analyze a unique Arctic snow sample using ion chromatography, providing an introduction to research-grade instrumentation. The positive impact of this course on students, measured through quantitative and qualitative surveys, motivates increased implementation of courses that incorporate a real-world connection through environmental research. We have given presentations about our course development at multiple diversity & education events at the Univ. of Michigan and American Chemical Society national meetings. This course development is made possible by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute through the Authentic Research Connection.
Inter-Professional STEM Learning Community (STEM-IPLC)
To increase the accessibility of environmental chemistry research experience, the Pratt Lab designed an environmental chemistry research-based laboratory experiment for high school classrooms that uses basic laboratory equipment and easily accessible, authentic environmental samples. This environmental chemistry experiment was conducted with high school teachers in a series of workshops as part of the Inter-Professional STEM Learning Community (STEM-IPLC) founded by collaborators Prof. Ginger Shultz, Prof. R. Charles Dershimer, and Prof. Leah Bricker. The goal of this work is to increase the connection between authentic scientific research practices and content learning at the high school level through the development and implementation of workshops with high school teachers, with evaluation by qualitative methods. Together, Prof. Pratt and Pratt Lab PhD student Nate May taught a three-week research module to pre-service teachers in Winter 2016 and most recently Nate co-organized a two-day high school teacher workshop in August 2017. Together, Nate and Pratt Lab undergraduate researcher Alexa Watson used qualitative data to investigate best practices to implement chemistry research into the high school curriculum in collaboration with Prof. Ginger Shultz.
