Analytical Chemistry
A Primer
If you are an instructor of analytical chemistry (i.e., quantitative analysis) or use an existing analytical chemistry textbook in your course, please consider serving as a reviewer for The Primer(!). We will send you a copy of the textbook and post your review on this site and our official website (https://dgs125.wixsite.com/analytical-chemistry). All profits are donated to nonprofit organizations but we can provide some enticement (let’s talk!).
​Over the past twenty years, a loose collection of lecture notes and scribblings transformed into the textbook "Analytical Chemistry: A Primer." An important motivation for creating the self-published textbook (electronic and paperback versions) was to provide students and faculty with a low-cost resource for learning and teaching the fundamental concepts in analytical chemistry. One major theme in Dan and Bal's 15+-year collaboration has been the development of instructional materials which guide instructors and students in constructing low-cost, low-power, small, mobile instruments for laboratory enhancement (i.e., the SMILE program) - a program focused on improving students' skills and competencies in the lab whilst serving as a model of sustainable (i.e., budget friendly) innovation. The focus of the primer is on classroom instruction.
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​The Analytical Chemistry Primer was written to provide students and faculty a low-cost resource for learning and teaching the fundamental concepts in analytical chemistry. The scope of concepts has been limited to 1) methods of quantitation, statistics, and data management, 2) acid-base, complexation, and electrochemical equilibria, 3) spectroscopy, and 4) separations and chromatography.
Although the classic solution equilibria approach to quantify analytes has largely been supplanted by instrumental methods, there are still many examples where equilibria-based methods are simpler, faster, and as accurate. Further, sample preparation and instrument parameter optimization are often necessary steps in any analytical procedure, most of which, are rooted in the fundamental concepts of solution equilibria.
How we use the Primer
Lecture topics are aligned with the major sections and subsections in the Primer. The first lecture in each topic is a fun lecture. For example, the introductory lecture for electrochemistry is a story about its fascinating origins and historical developments in a talk entitled, "From Franklin to Frankenstein" (see Sykes, D. and Morrisson, M. (2017) Chemistry of Literature, Literature of Chemistry: Developing and Promoting a Course for the Humanities and Natural Sciences. In ACS Symposium Series: Liberal Arts Strategies for the Chemistry Classroom; G. Crawford and K. Kloepper (Eds.); Oxford University Press: Washington, DC, 2017, 11-25. DOI: 10.1021/bk-2017-1266.ch002). The second lecture provides an introduction to the terminology, a review of concepts students are expected to know from prior courses, and an initial instructor led classroom problem-solving session. Students are not required to have read the Study Guide prior to the first two lectures.
We often tell our students that employers (incl. graduate faculty preceptors) are not hiring employees to provide known answers to solved problems but are searching for inquisitive team members who ask novel questions and take the initiative to find solutions to those questions. So, a major objective of the course is to mentor students in developing their critical thinking skills. The questions at the end of each study guide/chapter are designed to be challenging and require time, experience, and guidance to solve (not all questions are intense, there are some plug-and-chug type questions, too).
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We guide the students in solving the end-of-study guide (EOSG) questions using two approaches:
1. Most lectures incorporate either a whole-class discussion or a small group discussion of a set of EOSG questions or both. Classroom discussions are led by students directing the instructor through each step in the problem-solving process and moving forward once consensus is reached on each step or, as appropriate, we come to agreement upon a particular numerical value. Alternatively, students self-assemble into small groups (3 to 4 students per group) to work on one or more EOSG questions and members of the instructional team rotate through the groups to facilitate group progress and answer questions.
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2. We offer multiple (typically, four) 1.5-hour long early evening workshops each week for 10 weeks. The workshops are akin to recitations but we do not have "official" recitations. To encourage students to attend and participate in a workshop, they can earn up to 5 extra credit points each week (attending multiple workshops in a given week does not earn a student more than 5 points). Students can earn a maximum of 50 extra credit points during the semester - points which can erase the negative impact of a poor exam performance. Statistics show that students who attend lectures and at least one workshop per week gain a 5% per week advantage in exam scores over students who did not attend a workshop - for example, attending one weekly workshop for three weeks plus attending all lectures results -on average- in an exam score 15% higher than students who attended lecture but did not attend any workshop. Students quickly learn that engaging the course improves their understanding and their performance. By the fourth week of the semester, over 90% of the students attend a weekly workshop.
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Each workshop contains 10 EOSG questions and each workshop is themed to one of the major course topics:
Workshop 1: Methods of Quantitation
Workshop 2: Spectrophotometry
Workshop 3: Basic Equilibria
Workshops 4 and 5: Acid-Base Equilibria
Workshop 6: Complexation​​
Workshops 7 and 8: Electrochemistry
Workshop 9: Separations
Workshop 10: Chromatography
