Getting Real: A General Chemistry Laboratory Program Focusing on "Real World" Substances

In order to confront the abstractness of the freshman chemistry syllabus and the consequent failure of students to relate what they learn to their everyday lives, we have designed a new freshman laboratory program. It is intended as an interface between the substances that surround the students in their ordinary lives and the abstract principles presented in chemistry classrooms. A laboratory should provide the organized experiences and observations that underlie the intellectual constructs of chemistry, and tying these experiences and observations to the real world can help to provide motivation for study of the principles. The freshman laboratory program constitutes the foundation for subsequent laboratory courses. However, the good habits we strive to develop there (careful observation, thorough record keeping, proper use of equipment, objective data analysis) are essential to all scientific work, and are intended to provide lasting educational value for all students, especially those who do not take l...