Laboratory Skills and Outcomes for the First-Year Sequence

At the end of the First-Year Sequence a student will have the indicated skills in the following areas.

Laboratory Notebook

•Comes to laboratory prepared for the day’s exercise (the statement of purpose, procedure and physical properties of reactants and products are written in the notebook, and the calculations outlined)

 

•Understands the importance of recording data and observations promptly, permanently and completely

 

•Able to organize data in the laboratory notebook so that it is easily understandable by others

 

•Able to evaluate data and the experiment from statistical results and a knowledge of chemistry

 

•Able to work from written and oral instructions

Precision/Significant Figures

•Understand the differences in measuring devices

 

•Apply significant figures to calculations

 

•Explain the difference between precision and accuracy, and understand the relationship between them

 

•Know and consistently apply the rules of significant figures in calculations

 

•Be able to calculate an average, percent error, standard deviation and a confidence limit for a data set using Excel^®, and relate these to the precision and accuracy of the measurement

 

•Understand that there is a difference between the uncertainty in a single measurement and the uncertainty in a set of measurements, the relationship of these to precision

 

•Appreciate the propagation of error, why it is important and be able to perform a propagation of error calculation given the appropriate formula

 

Presentation/Summary of Data

•Understand the components of a well-presented graph (title, axis labels, etc.)

 

•Be able to consistently prepare graphs that clearly and concisely present experimental results and theoretical fits both by hand and using Excel^®

 

•Able to perform a statistical analysis of data using a spreadsheet

 

•Will understand why data is summarized in a particular fashion

 

•Appreciate the importance of reproducibility in a measurement

 

•Appreciate the sources of experimental error

 

•Calculate a percent yield

 

•Calculate an R_f value

 

Use of Equipment/Glassware and Lab Techniques

•Recognize basic glassware and equipment

 

•Able to properly light and adjust a Bunsen burner and appreciate the various temperatures in the flame

 

•Demonstrate an ability to use a magnetic stirring hotplate

 

•Properly use both top-loading and analytical balances with minimal spillage

 

•Demonstrate proper laboratory technique in dispensing both solid and liquid reagents

 

•Define a meniscus, and be able to read properly

 

•Correctly prepare solutions from solid reagents or by dilution using both volumetric (pipet, volumetric flask) or non-volumetric (beaker, graduated cylinder) glassware

 

•Understand when it is appropriate to use volumetric glassware and when it is not

 

•Able to perform gravity and vacuum filtration

 

•Collect products from a synthesis and perform basic characterizations of the products

 

•Understand that synthesis of a material also requires characterization

 

•Perform titrations using a buret

 

•Able to recognize whether a reaction has occurred

 

•Understand the necessity of segregated waste disposal and dispose of waste properly

 

•Know the basic safety rules for working in a laboratory and will conscientiously abide by these rules at all times

 

•Appreciate the difference between glass, plastic and quartz cuvettes for UV/Vis spectrometry

 

•Give Beer’s Law and be able to use

 

•Be able to construct a calibration curve and understand its importance in quantitative analysis

 

•Be able to use basic instrumentation (e. g., Spec 20, pH meter)

 

•Understand what chromatography is, how it works, and why it is used