From right: Charles Atwood, coordinator of freshman chemistry; Bobby Stanton, laboratory coordinator; and freshman biology major Katrin Usifo watch freshman biology major Matthew Sokolik zero out MeasureNet?s spectrophotometer before the device is used to measure the elemental spectrum of a substance. (Photo by Peter Frey)
The perfect solution
Computer-based teaching revolutionizes freshman chemistry labs
By Phil Williams
phil@franklin.uga.edu
Each week, nearly 2,000 UGA students come into freshman chemistry labs, where they work with retorts and beakers as they learned in high school. But a new twist has been added to labs here--computer-based probes that allow students to perform bench science as researchers do.
The change has been dramatic and has improved instructional capabilities remarkably, according to Charles Atwood, coordinator of freshman chemistry.
"This brings us finally into the 21st century," he says. "It allows students to perform experiments quickly and accurately, and so far the results have been amazing."
A problem with freshman chemistry labs has always been the intense level of activity required of teaching assistants and professors. TAs particularly had to roam the lab constantly, answering questions, solving problems and giving advice. Now, a single TA at an integrated computer station can monitor the work of 25 students in experiments that test everything from temperature and spectral properties of liquids to the analysis of gases with a spectrometer.
The system, built by a Cincinnati company called MeasureNet, involves a series of small two-person computer workstations where students work on experiments, using specific probes for assigned experiments. The result has been an increase in learning speed and knowledge of equipment that is similar to that used in labs where many science graduates may one day work.
"The system is extremely user-friendly, and most of it is menu-driven," says Bobby Stanton, general chemistry lab coordinator. "Each system controller is like the brain of the system, and they are really easy to upgrade."
Students have reported that learning to use the probes is quite easy, and in short order they are doing everything from determining what ions are in liquid to the elemental content of some substance.
Installation of the new lab system began a little over a year ago, and it has only recently been completed as new controllers were added when funds became available.
The upgrades in freshman chemistry labs aren't the only steps forward in the chemistry building. Richard Morrison has overseen an upgrading of the organic chemistry laboratory that now allows students to use cutting-edge diagnostic tools such as infrared spectrometry, gas chromatography and nuclear magnetic resonance imaging.
"Two years ago, this was a storage room," says Morrison, as he looks over the high-tech lab. He laughs when he says "this new equipment probably improves us by a century," but he's not really kidding.
The new equipment allows smaller groups to perform far more intensive analyses of substances than ever before in UGA history. The spectrometers and magnetic resonance equipment have been up and running for a while, but the gas chromatographs have just come online.
Few teaching labs in the country are so well-equipped, says Morrison. Instead of rudimentary tests, undergraduates can now unravel the actual structure of compounds--something limited in years past to graduate students and faculty. Morrison hopes soon to connect the new equipment in the organic chemistry lab to the MeasureNet system, too, making it easier for students to perform experiments and then save the data on computers.
One of the advantages of the system in the freshman chemistry labs is that, quite soon, all the information from student experiments will be saved to a network server in the chemistry building, from which it can be remotely accessed.
"So students could do an experiment here and then go back to their dorm rooms or houses and continue to work on it," says Atwood. Labs will not end when a student leaves the bench but go on as he or she has time later in the day or week.
While other U.S. universities are now using computer-storage capabilities for students' bench-science labs, most still require one computer for each workstation, which takes up a tremendous amount of work space. With a single computer hooked to much smaller workstations, which are mounted at eye level off the benches, there?s plenty of space for experiments at UGA. In fact, in terms of numbers of students, UGA is the largest user of this system in the country.
All students need to do with the MeasureNet system is plug in the preprogrammed probe for whatever experiment is being run on a specific day.
"We were lagging behind, but now we?re on the cutting edge," says Stanton. "The students and TAs have been impressed with what we can accomplish."
MeasureNet is pleased to announce that its website and newsletters will feature caricatures of notable chemists drawn by Professor William Jensen of the University of Cincinnati. The series will include a brief biographical summary of each individual authored by Jensen. The drawings will appear regularly on MeasureNet's homepage and in its blog beginning in August, 2011.
"I'm thrilled to have these Jensen works associated with MeasureNet. "They'll add a very nice visual element to our media products. At the same time, they have a high degree of relevance to chemical education. Bill's drawings fit with our efforts to make the study of chemistry more interesting and germane to students of all academic backgrounds."
William B. Jensen, Ph.D. holds the Oesper Chair in the History of Chemistry and Chemical Education at the University of Cincinnati. He is also curator of the Oesper Collection of Rare Books and Portraits in the History of Chemistry and of the department of chemistry's apparatus museum. In the area of the history of chemistry, Dr. Jensen's interests center on the development of late 19th and early 20th century physical chemistry and inorganic chemistry, with special emphasis on the origins of chemical thermodynamics and solid-state inorganic chemistry. He also has made a detailed study of the origins and development of the 19th century scientific community in Cincinnati. Photos of his early 20th-century chemistry laboratory assembled at the University of Cincinnati have been used in MeasureNet brochures and exhibit displays.
June 5, 2008
Redwood City California’s Cañada College has chosen a 12-station MeasureNet Network as the data acquisition interface for its newly-renovated chemistry laboratory. The college will employ an array of probes, including electrochemistry probeware and MeasureNet's multi-function dual-beam colorimeter. Chemistry professors Jeanette Medina and Anuradha Pattanayak said the system’s higher resolution “will enable the use of smaller quantities of chemicals, thereby making experiments safer and cutting down on disposal. In addition, it will give us the ability to design innovative experiments to expand our chemistry curriculum to incorporate UV-VIS spectroscopy, chromatography and HPLC techniques.”
Serving some 6,000 full and part-time students, Cañada College ranks as one of the state's leading community colleges in transfer and completion rates. Its Redwood City location is home to Pixar Animation Studios and Oracle Corporation.
MeasureNet Technology Ltd. manufactures patented, network-based data acquisition interfaces for science teaching laboratories. It is a spin-off of the University of Cincinnati's Department of Chemistry and is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. Measurenet's award-winning, PC-reducing design helps reduce laboratory maintenance and operational costs while giving students access to high quality shared UV-vis spectroscopy, gas chromatograph and HPLC connectivity, and an array of innovative probeware. Its acclaimed intuitive design provides improved transparency to enable better science-focused learning. Winner of the Ohio Governor's Award For Excellence in Energy Efficiency, MeasureNet networks are found in universities, community colleges, high schools, and vocational training centers across the United States and around the world. MeasureNet Ltd. is celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2008.
For more information contact:
Len Weibel
Director of Business Development
tel. toll-free: 866-396-6765
lenweibel@measurenet-tech.com
May 5, 2008
The third of the Pontifical Catholic University institutions in Puerto Rico has adopted MeasureNet for its chemistry program. Pontifical Catholic University in Arecibo joins their sister institutions in Ponce and Mayagüez with a six-station installation that includes capabilities for shared UV-vis spectroscopy, colorimetry, fluorescence, turbidity, and GC connectivity. The laboratory is part of the College of Sciences which was founded in 1986. The College of Sciences offers bachelor degrees in Chemistry, Biology, Medical Technology and Environmental Science, while offering a masters degree program in Optometry.The campus is located near Puerto Rico's northwest Atlantic coast about 80 miles west of San Juan.
Founded in 1616, the town of Arecibo is one of the oldest in Puerto Rico and was a functioning settlement long before belonging to the island's indigenous Taino people. The city is well known for the nearby Arecibo Radio Observatory, the largest single-unit radio observatory every constructed with a 305m diameter. The town also hosts facilities of a number of Fortune 500 corporations such as Merck, General Electric, and Pfizer. The town's population is approximately 104,600.
MeasureNet Technology Ltd. manufactures patented, network-based data acquisition interfaces for science teaching laboratories. It is a spin-off of the University of Cincinnati's Department of Chemistry and is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. Measurenet's award-winning, PC-reducing design helps reduce laboratory maintenance and operational costs while giving students access to high quality shared UV-vis spectroscopy, gas chromatograph and HPLC connectivity, and an array of innovative probeware. Its acclaimed intuitive design provides improved transparency to enable better science-focused learning. Winner of the Ohio Governor's Award For Excellence in Energy Efficiency, MeasureNet networks are found in universities, community colleges, high schools, and vocational training centers across the United States and around the world.
For more information contact:
Len Weibel
Director of Business Development
tel. toll-free: 866-396-6765
lenweibel@measurenet-tech.com
> MeasureNet at Pontifical Catholic University-Ponce, Puerto Rico (en Español)
> General Chemistry Experiment: Introduction to MeasureNet (en Español)
> Puerto Rico's 'City of Lions' Becomes MeasureNet City
> Pontifical Catholic University-Mayagüez Selects MeasureNet
> MeasureNet Pontifical Catholic University-Mayagüez Laboratory Photos
April 8, 2008
Research by two of MeasureNet's most active academic users highlighted MeasureNet's 10th anniversary celebration at the 2008 American Chemical Society Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana. Assessing Student Learning Via Practical Exams was presented by Bobby Stanton of the University of Georgia's Department of Chemistry and his colleague Lin Zhu, currently a faculty member of the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. Stanton and Zhu, along with UGA's Professor Charles Atwood, are authors of Experiments in General Chemistry Featuring MeasureNet published by Cengage Learning. A revised edition is expected from the authors in 2009. Read Stanton and Zhu's poster abstract here.
Western Kentucky University's The Effect of PC-based Laboratories on Student Learning garnered much attention and was selected for a two-evening showing in the Chemical Education poster section. The ongoing research evaluating MeasureNet's impact on student learning in spectroscopy is being undertaken by Professors Les Pesterfield, Stuart Burris, Darwin Dahl, and Hasan Palandoken of WKU's Department of Chemistry, as well as Jacqueline Pope-Tarrence of the Department of Psychology. Read more about WKU's research here.
MeasureNet Technology Ltd. manufactures patented, network-based data acquisition interfaces for science teaching laboratories. The company is a spin-off of the University of Cincinnati's Department of Chemistry and is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. Measurenet's award-winning, PC-reducing design helps reduce laboratory maintenance and operational costs while giving students access to high quality shared UV-vis spectroscopy, gas chromatograph and HPLC connectivity, and an array of innovative probeware. Its acclaimed intuitive design provides improved transparency to enable better science-focused learning. Winner of the Ohio Governor's Award For Excellence in Energy Efficiency, MeasureNet networks are found in universities, community colleges, high schools, and vocational training centers across the United States and around the world.
For more information contact:
Len Weibel
Director of Business Development
tel. toll-free: 866-396-6765
lenweibel@measurenet-tech.com
> University of Georgia Chemistry Department
> Western Kentucky University Chemistry Department
> Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department
Lin Zhu (left) of IUPUI and UGA's Bobby Stanton (right) at the 2008 ACS-New Orleans Conference.
WKU's Les Pesterfield (left) comparing notes with UGA's Bobby Stanton.
MeasureNet's Robert Voorhees (middle) and Elwood Brooks (right) are captivated by University of Arkansas-Little Rock's Robert Belford.
Left to right:
1) MeasureNet student workstation safely mounted using inexpensive custom-made bracket fitted to bench monument.
2) Alternate view of workstation row.
3) workstations with LCD projector (linked to instructor PC outside of photo).
4) Chemistry Professor Héctor Cancel, Director, Title V (left), Michael Kurutz, MeasureNet Director of Marketing (center).
> Pontifical Catholic University-Mayagüez Selects MeasureNet
> MeasureNet at Pontifical Catholic University-Ponce, Puerto Rico (en Español)
> General Chemistry Experiment: Introduction to MeasureNet (en Español)
> Puerto Rico's 'City of Lions' Becomes MeasureNet City
> University in Famous Radio Telescope Home Chooses MeasureNet
November 5, 2007
The density of MeasureNet in Puerto Rico continues to increase! The newest member of the MeasureNet user community is Pontifical Catholic University of Mayagüez. Its sister institution, the Pontifical Catholic University in Ponce was the first university on the island to adopt MeasureNet for laboratory electronic data acquisition in 2003. Other recent MeasureNet installations on the island include University of Puerto Rico–Ponce and Interamerican University–Ponce.
The city of Mayagüez lies on the western coast of Puerto Rico and is known as the "Ciudad de las Aguas Puras" (City of Pure Waters). It boasts 92,000 inhabitants and is a former center of tuna canning and textiles. It is also known for its impressive colonial style town center and cathedral.
The Mayagüez Pontifical Catholic University installation will include digital balances, GC functionality, shared 1-nm resolution UV-VIS spectroscopy, electrochemistry probeware, and a set of multi-function colorimeters in addition to temperature, pressure, pH. and voltage, probeware. While small relative to others on the island, the university's service-structured chemistry program is high in enthusiasm and determination to provide a modern curricular and instrumentation experience that prepares students for future research and private sector science-related employment.
"MeasureNet is pleased to have Pontifical Catholic University of Mayagüez join the user community," says MeasureNet President Robert Voorhees. "It has dedicated itself to providing the most advanced teaching lab experience available through the installation of MeasureNet and associated curricular changes. We would like to thank Professor Hector Cancel and his colleagues for their efforts."
MeasureNet Technology Ltd. manufactures patented, network-based data acquisition interfaces for science teaching laboratories. It is a spin-off of the University of Cincinnati's Department of Chemistry and is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. Measurenet's award-winning, PC-reducing design helps reduce laboratory maintenance and operational costs while giving students access to high quality shared UV-vis spectroscopy, gas chromatograph and HPLC connectivity, and an array of innovative probeware. Its acclaimed intuitive design provides improved transparency to enable better science-focused learning. Winner of the Ohio Governor's Award For Excellence in Energy Efficiency, MeasureNet networks are found in universities, community colleges, high schools, and vocational training centers across the United States and around the world.
For more information contact:
Len Weibel
Director of Business Development
tel. toll-free: 866-396-6765
lenweibel@measurenet-tech.com
> MeasureNet Pontifical Catholic University-Mayagüez Laboratory Photos
> MeasureNet at Pontifical Catholic University-Ponce, Puerto Rico (en Español)
> General Chemistry Experiment: Introduction to MeasureNet (en Español)
> Puerto Rico's 'City of Lions' Becomes MeasureNet City
> University in Famous Radio Telescope Home Chooses MeasureNet
March 31, 2007
The University of Central Missouri Department of Chemistry and Physics has selected MeasureNet for equipping its Chemistry division laboratories. MeasureNet capabilities installed at CMSU include probeware for temperature, pressure, pH, and voltage, as well as shared emission and absorption spectroscopy via the network's shared 1-nanometer resolution UV-vis spectrometer.
The University began its life in 1871, and was formally transformed into a teachers college in 1919. Today, its 1,561 acre campus is home to over 10,600 graduate and undergraduate students. Located about 50 miles southeast of Kansas City, the school is still noted for its teacher training programs—the University produces more graduates in the field of Education than any other institution in the state. Notable alumni include Carrie Evens—leader of the U.S. Temperance Movement, James Evans—the inventor of Cheerios cereal, and David Steward—CEO of World Wide Technology, Inc., the world's largest African-American owned company
"We are pleased to have such a prestigious Missouri institution as part of the MeasureNet Community ," says MeasureNet President Robert Voorhees. "I'd like to thank Professor Renee Cole (Physical Chemistry and Chemical Education) for her vision and tenacity, Chair Wayne Stalick, and the department's Steve Boone (Interim Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences) for their support." Using a cluster of 700 PCs, Professor Boone and his colleague Curtis Cooper discovered the largest known prime number (M32,582,657) in September, 2006 operating as part of the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS).
MeasureNet Technology Ltd. manufactures patented, network-based data acquisition interfaces for science teaching laboratories. It is a spin-off of the University of Cincinnati's Department of Chemistry and is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. Measurenet's award-winning, PC-reducing design helps reduce laboratory maintenance and operational costs while giving students access to high quality shared UV-vis spectroscopy, gas chromatograph and HPLC connectivity, and an array of innovative probeware. Its acclaimed intuitive design provides improved transparency to enable better science-focused learning. Winner of the Ohio Governor's Award For Excellence in Energy Efficiency, MeasureNet networks are found in universities, community colleges, high schools, and vocational training centers across the United States and around the world.
For more information contact:
Len Weibel
Director of Business Development
tel. toll-free: 866-396-6765
lenweibel@measurenet-tech.com
March 31, 2007
The Chemistry Department of Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville, Tennessee has selected MeasureNet to update data acquisition capabilities in its General Chemistry Laboratories. Former Department Chair Professor Scott Northrup and his colleague Professor Thomas Furtsch will spearhead MeasureNet's integration into the first-year curriculum. MeasureNet networks are replacing calculator-based interfaces used by students over the past decade.
First opening its doors as Dixie College in 1912, Tennessee Polytechnic Institute began its early life with just 13 faculty members and 19 students in 1916. The original campus began as a daisy field of 18 undeveloped acres, an administrative building, and two dormitories. The town of Cookeville served as a whistle stop for locomotives on the Tennessee Central Railroad between Nashville and Knoxville in those early days and its said that faculty would greet students at the train depot to escort them to the school. Today, the university has grown to 87 buildings on a 235-acre campus with 370 faculty and nearly 8,000 students (2006).
U.S. News & World Report ranked Tennessee Tech University as one of the top eleven public universities in the South in its 2007 America's Best Colleges guide. Placed in the top ranking for five years, the University remains the only Tennessee school to be ranked as a Top Public University in the South according to the guide. Tennessee Tech also was rated by The Princeton Review as a "Best Southeastern College" in 2006 for the third time. It was one of four public institutions in the state to garner the rating. Top quality academics, low cost and exceptional financial aid service earned TTU a spot in the 2007 America's Best Value Colleges guidebook published by the Princeton Review and Random House.
"Tennessee Tech is a greatly admired institution with a growing reputation and we're please to have them as partners," says MeasureNet President Robert Voorhees. "We congratulate Scott Northrup and his colleagues on their decision and admire their foresight and tenacity. We'd also like to thank Chair Professor Jeffery Boles for his assistance and support."
MeasureNet installations now stretch across from east to west in the Volunteer State and include other institutions such as Tennessee State, University of Tennessee Knoxville, and the University of Memphis.
MeasureNet Technology Ltd. manufactures patented, network-based data acquisition interfaces for science teaching laboratories. It is a spin-off of the University of Cincinnati's Department of Chemistry and is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. Measurenet's award-winning, PC-reducing design helps reduce laboratory maintenance and operational costs while giving students access to high quality shared UV-vis spectroscopy, gas chromatograph and HPLC connectivity, and an array of innovative probeware. Its acclaimed intuitive design provides improved transparency to enable better science-focused learning. Winner of the Ohio Governor's Award For Excellence in Energy Efficiency, MeasureNet networks are found in universities, community colleges, high schools, and vocational training centers across the United States and around the world.
For more information contact:
Len Weibel
Director of Business Development
tel. toll-free: 866-396-6765
lenweibel@measurenet-tech.com
December 23, 2006
Inter American University and the University of Puerto Rico in Ponce have purchased MeasureNet systems for their chemistry laboratories to bolster ongoing efforts to better train and prepare students for future science research and employment. The two institutions join Pontifical Catholic University in featuring MeasureNet in their chemistry teaching laboratories—making all major 4-year college programs in Puerto Rico's southern cultural and economic center MeasureNet users.
Known as "Ciudad de los Leones," Ponce was founded by the grandson of Spanish explorer Ponce de León in 1692 and is presently Puerto Rico's third largest metropolitan area numbering 264,000. Elegant neoclassical Spanish architecture graces the central plaza and surrounding residential neighborhoods. Pastel-washed buildings fan out along turquoise-hued marble sidewalks housing everything from dance studios to cafes. Ponce boasts what is arguably the finest art museum in the Caribbean, as well as the famous red and black "Parque de Bombas:" a fire station turned museum commemorating the efforts of firemen in 1883 who saved the town and much of the island's south coast from a raging fire.
Puerto Rico itself is a major commercial center in the Caribbean and has considerable pharmaceutical-related infrastructure that employs many in the sciences. The island's American Chemical Society student affiliates are regarded as some of the most active in all of the United States.
Inter American University of Ponce was founded in 1910 and is located on the south-eastern quadrant of the city. It's 30 acre campus is home to over 5,100 students and is part of the larger nine-campus Inter American University system founded in San German in 1912. The Ponce campus offers degree programs in Biomedical Sciences, Radiological Science, and Optical Science Technologies.
The University of Puerto Rico-Ponce is just south of the city center near the Ponce Playa interchange of the island's main toll road. It hosts some 3,400 students offering a variety of degree programs including ones in Health Care and Life Sciences. UPR-Ponce is the first branch of Puerto Rico's public university system to employ MeasureNet in its teaching laboratories.
"We are very pleased by the adoption of UPR-Ponce as the first of the UPR campuses to use MeasureNet. I am very grateful for the patient efforts of its Chemistry department and allied administrative personnel who made MeasureNet a top priority," says MeasureNet President Robert Voorhees. "Inter American-Ponce is also a significant and prestigious addition to our company's user family" Voorhees adds, "These two institutions are true leaders in Puerto Rico for giving their students the most advanced tool available to prepare students for real-world chemistry."
Inter American and UPR-Ponce join the city's Pontifical Catholic University, the Caribbean's first user of MeasureNet. Its department recently authored MeasureNet's first General Chemistry Laboratory Manual in Spanish and has been active in promoting the benefits of MeasureNet across the island. Pontifical Catholic University's Professor Myriam Quintana and Carmen Collazo presented research at the 2004 San Diego American Chemical Society National Conference documenting the positive impact of their MeasureNet Networks on the program's curriculum and student learning experience.
MeasureNet Technology Ltd. manufactures patented, network-based data acquisition interfaces for science teaching laboratories. It is a spin-off of the University of Cincinnati's Department of Chemistry and is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. Measurenet's award-winning, PC-reducing design helps reduce laboratory maintenance and operational costs while giving students access to high quality shared UV-vis spectroscopy, gas chromatograph connectivity, and an array of innovative probeware. Its acclaimed intuitive design provides improved transparency to enable better science-focused, not technology-focused, learning. Winner of the Ohio Governor's Award For Excellence in Energy Efficiency, MeasureNet networks are found in universities, community colleges, high schools, and vocational training centers across the United States and around the world.
For more information contact:
Len Weibel
Director of Business Development
tel. toll-free: 866-396-6765
lenweibel@measurenet-tech.com