Abstract

The Department of Chemistry requests funds to purchase nine computers and associated software to equip a new Organic Study Center in Bagley 331. This Organic Study Center, started in the Fall Quarter of 2004, serves the approximately 1000 undergraduate students who are enrolled in every quarter in our 200-level organic chemistry lecture course sequences (Chem 220/221, 223/224, 237/238/239) and the associated laboratories (Chem 241/242). This center complements the Freshman Study Center next door (in Bagley 330) that is operating at capacity, serving some 2000 undergraduates enrolled every quarter in 100-level course work. The combination of a pleasant working space and teaching assistant help is greatly improving the 200-level student experience, and will be even more effective if equipped with adequate computing facilities.

Background

The Department of Chemistry is the destination of thousands of undergraduate students every quarter. The largest fraction of these students is enrolled in 100-level courses that are the science gateway to majors all over campus. The latter cohort is well served by a Freshman Study Center established in 1997 with the help of Student Technology Fee funding. That Center, with a capacity of 120 and served by 30 computers, operates at capacity, an indication that undergraduate students value it highly. In the past there was no similar support structure for the 1000 sophomore-level students who take organic chemistry coursework every quarter. These include lecture and laboratory coursework. As is the case in 100-level coursework, these 200-level students also benefit from opportunities to work closely with one another in the presence of an “expert”, in this case a teaching assistant. For this reason, we established in Fall Quarter of 2004 an Organic Study Center with a capacity of 48 students. We now propose to equip it with nine computers and monitors, including software appropriate to this level of coursework.

Benefits

Teaching and learning of chemistry are greatly enhanced by the availability and use of computers. This has now for several years been the case at the 100-level. Now that we have provided a facility suitable for the Organic Study Center, the addition of adequate computing facilities will extend these benefits to our 200-level curriculum. The following are examples of productive uses of computers by 200-level undergraduate students: i) Doing homework problems is absolutely critical to the learning of organic chemistry. There exist ample databases of computer exercises that reinforce 200-level course concepts. These are presently underutilized by our faculty and students. ii) Computers are useful for writing laboratory reports for 200-level laboratory coursework. In addition to word-processing programs (which are already readily available to students), we will provide the molecular drawing program ChemDraw that allows a student to create a report with a more professional appearance. iii) Lecture and laboratory coursework at the 200-level often requires that the student have access to tabulated values of physical constants for organic substances (melting points, boiling points, spectroscopic information). Virtually all such information can now be located on-line more quickly than using the more tedious hard-copy in a library. iv) Most of our faculty members are now using computer-projected illustrations in the classroom. This is particularly effective for displaying macromolecules (proteins, DNA, etc.). Students need to have access to these illustrations for study purposes. v) In recent years, the speed of even personal computers has become sufficient to perform quantum mechanical calculations that can reveal fundamental truths concerning organic molecules. By providing the program Spartan for our students, they will be able to perform these calculations themselves, rather than relying upon someone else’s calculations. This experience is both stimulating and beneficial to learning.

This new Organic Study Center will, when properly equipped with computing facilities, uniquely on this campus provide the combination of content expertise (provided by TAs) and technical capabilities (in this case the specialized software programs ChemDraw and Spartan) that can meet the needs of students at the 200-level in Chemistry courses. In addition, we will make available on-line tutorial software provided by the textbook publisher (McGraw Hill) providing students with another learning environment, and allowing us to test out such software before large-scale implementation.

Additionally, it is simply a reality of life that everyone needs access to a computer to remain connected to the outside world. The requested computers will be a magnet attracting students to this new Organic Study Center.

An important aspect of this proposal is the request for flat panel rather than cathode ray tube monitors. Like the Freshman Study Center, the Organic Study Center is located in the windowless “core” of Bagley Hall which, in 1937, had a state-of-the-art ventilation system. Today, of course, we recognize that ventilation to be minimal! Our experience in the Freshman Study Center was that the combined heat load of students, lights, computers, and cathode ray tube monitors produced temperatures as high as 88 oF. This problem was greatly reduced by conversion to flat panel displays. We request flat panel displays at the outset for the Organic Study Center.

Student Access

All students have access, but students working on 200-level coursework will be given priority. The Organic Study Center is presently open 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. during weekdays. If demand is sufficient, we will expand these hours. Any of our 225 graduate students who request a key to the space will have access before and after hours.

Available Resources

The Department supports the salaries of the director (Dr. Tracy Harvey) and the teaching assistants who serve in the Organic Study Center. The Department paid to create an attractive space (demolition, paint, carpet, dropped ceiling) and purchase furniture (work tables, chairs).

Installation Timeline

Upon receipt of the Tech Fee funds, computers and software will be ordered. To minimize disruption, it is our preference to delay installation until a break period.

Departmental Endorsement

The Department provides its highest support to this proposal. The Freshman Study Center has been a huge success. After one year of operation, we expect no less from the Organic Study Center. We are hopeful that that the addition of computer facilities to this center will in fact provide synergy to faculty efforts to update the teaching and thus improve student learning of organic chemistry.

Student Endorsement

Prior to the first examination in this first quarter of operation, the students voted with their feet: the Organic Study Center was filled to capacity. Once the facility is equipped with computers, expanding its utility, we anticipate greater utilization at all times.

Items

Below are the items making up the current proposal. The asterisk (*) beside items signify that they were approved by the committee. This however was not implemented correctly for our database before 2005, so earlier years may not show this.

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