The Fitch group has been exploring combining undergraduate course work in instrumental analysis with community derived samples to incorporate service learning into the classroom.  The goals are several. 1. One goal is to provide a true analytic experience which transcends instrumentation calibration, and moves into problem based learning: which instrument and why?  2.  Students are required to face the question: how do I know?, as there is no jar sitting in the closet which gives the right answer.  3.  Students confront the difference between public and private science allowing ethics to be built into the class both implicitly and explicitly.  4.  Science is seen within it?s larger societal context. 5.  Collaborative groups, particularly, elementary school children are given an opportunity to participate in meaningful science.  6.  Public health concerns are addressed

 

 
 

Community Partners                                  

Elementary/University Collaboration Fall 2000
                     
Pullman Sherwin Williams Site Fall 2001

 

Ethical Issues article

Related article in C&EN news

Related Article in Chronicle of Higher Education


Hints on Developing a Chemistry Service Learning Class

 

Articles
         Dragan, S. A., Augustine, L. M., Balija, A. M., Baqai, K. A., Bausley, S. R., Duarte, A., Gierszewski, T. S., Hannon K. M., Lorenzi, P. J., Marxer, S. M., Mougolias, D. T., Parekh, D.R., Sembrano, W.D., Tracz, S. M., Fitch, A., Fugitive metals from the Chicago Northwest Municipal Solid Waste Incinerator: A Lead Isotope Study, .
         Zhukas, Audrius, A. Fitch: NMR of Lead EDTA for the Single Analyte Instrumentation Lab, J. Chem. Ed.
Published
         Fitch, Alanah, Aaron Repman, and John Schmidt: The Ethics of Community/Undergraduate Collaborative Research in Chemistry Monograph Chapter sponsored by the Association of Higher Education. Solicited Chapter. 1999..
          Fitch, A. Lead Analysis: Past and Present, Critical Reviews in Analytical Chemistry, 1998. 28(3), 267-345.
.         Dragan, Simona, Fitch, A.,: FTIR measurements of Lead. J. Chem. Ed. Special Edition. 1998, 1018-1021.
         Fitch, A. Book Chapter in Building Community: Social Science in Action (Ed. P. Nyden, A. Figert, M. Shibley, and A. Borrows) Pine Forge Press, Feb. 1997.
         Fitch, Alanah, Yunlong Wang, Sean Mellican, and Susan Macha: Lead Lab Teaching Instrumentation with One Analyte. Analytical Chemistry, 1996, Dec. 1, 727A.