Project Description

During the second half of the semester, our laboratory time will be dedicated to projects involving the quantitative analyses of real-world samples. Each of you will work with a partner to will decide upon and carry out a determination of a chemical component of a real-world sample using one of the instruments we’ve used in the first part of the course. As you move through this project, it is important that you pay attention to each step in the analytical process as discussed in chapter 0 of our textbook:

1. 1. 1. 1. Formulating the question

         2. Selecting analytical procedures

         3. Sampling

         4. Sample preparation

         5. Analysis

         6. Reporting and interpretation

         7. Drawing conclusions

This semester our projects will focus on "The Determination of ______________ in TBD using ______________." You and your partner will fill in the blanks for your particular project, develop and carry out the laboratory procedure, and report your results both through a written report and an oral presentation to the class.

See the lab projects for Spring 2023

TIMELINE

• • • Feb 28 - Deadline for choosing projects. This allows chemicals and supplies to be ordered during spring break.

    • Mar 6 - SPRING BREAK

    • Mar 13 - Experimental work

    • Mar 20 - Experimental work

    • Mar 27 - Experimental work

    • Apr 3 - Experimental work

    • Apr 10 - Experimental work

    • Apr 17 - Experimental work, FIRST DRAFT OF PAPER DUE (submit in Moodle, must be in Word format)

    • Apr 24 - Last day for data collection; Lab cleanup

    • Apr 25 (Friday) - FINAL DRAFT OF PAPER DUE (submit in Moodle, must be in Word format)

    • Apr 28 (Monday) - Presentations (during class time)

GUIDELINES/EXPECTATIONS

• • You must have at least one literature reference for your procedure. We don’t have time in this class to perform method development (take Analytical II for this). 

  • It is expected that you will find the chemical species in the sample. In other words, don’t do a determination of neptunium in tap water. You must detect something at a quantifiable level.

  • When you report the concentration of analyte(s) in your sample, it is important that you include the uncertainty in your measured value as well. This means you’ll want to do multiple samples from a particular source to generate good statistics. (Refer to Section 28-1 in your textbook to learn more about the importance of sampling.)

  • You must choose a chemical species for which the level in the sample is important. People need to care about how much of this species is present, and you must make the case for why people care. What are the consequences if the concentration is too high or too low?

  • You must choose more than one source for your real-world sample. For instance, if your sample is lake water, you must use samples from at least two different lakes. Your data analysis should then include a statistical comparison to determine if the levels of analyte are different in the two sample sources.

  • We do have some money to spend on these projects if need be. It is important that you determine right away if your project calls for equipment and/or chemicals that we would need to order.

  • At the end of the semester you will present your project in both an oral presentation to the class and in a final paper written in the format of a scientific journal article.

  • You must familiarize yourself with safety issues related to any chemical required for your project which we have not used previously in this class. I'll ask that you access the MSDS and give me a list of the particular safety concerns.

GRADING

The final grade for your project will be determined by the following factors:

• • • Quality of the final results and analysis (10 pts) – How good is the data and the analysis of that data?

    • Completeness of the project (10 pts) – Did you do everything that was expected of you?

    • Quality of the oral presentation (5 pts)

    • Quality of the final paper (5 pts) – Is the paper well-written? Is it complete? Does it follow the correct format for a scientific article? Is it well-referenced?

    • Effort (5 pts) - How hard did you work on the project?

    • LabArchives (5 pts) - Is the entire project well documented in your LabArchives notebook?

    • Timeliness (-5 pts for every missed deadline) – Was everything completed on time?