Development and implementation of an interactive, critical thinking-based module for the Laboratory Chemistry Course (5.310)

The introductory chemistry laboratory class, 5.310, is in desperate need of an update to improve the student laboratory experience and enable more student autonomy. Specifically, we will replace an existing lab in the course with a new lab to be developed over the summer of 2020. As this course is taken largely by nonmajors, more than half of whom are engineers, we propose the incorporation of additional content pertaining to engineering and process concepts to improve the professional relevance for the students in the course. Additionally, the course is concurrently being converted to a CI-M course, so we will include additional critical thinking and communication aspects relevant to the curriculum. This educational need is supported by faculty and students in both basic sciences and engineering, especially as the boundaries between basic science and engineering are disappearing. Both disciplines believe that in order to effectively train and educate students for the diverse careers pursued by those taking this course, the curriculum must be updated to increase content that enables critical, independent thinking by students. Work on this project will take place during 2021-2022.