case study in analytical chemistry

Department of Chemistry

College of Natural & Agricultural Sciences

Welcome to the UCR Department of Chemistry Case Study Collection  

Supported by funding from the National Science Foundation TUES (Transforming Undergraduate Education in STEM) program and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Higher Education Challenge Grant Program, we are creating a series of problem-based case studies that we hope instructors will implement during the first two years of their undergraduate chemistry program. This site is intended to provide general chemistry and organic chemistry instructors with a cohesive set of cases that correlate with the two year introductory chemistry curriculum, and improve student achievement in carrying out higher order problem solving and critical thinking. We also aim to create learning activities that help students see the link between chemistry and real-world issues, thereby increasing student interest and engagement in chemistry and science.

As the collection of cases grows, most of them will be published at the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science (NCCSTS). Links will take you to the NCCSTS site, where the case materials will be freely available for you to download. If you are an instructor and wish to receive the answer key for any of the cases, you can sign up as a member of the NCCSTS site and the site administrators will send you answer keys via email.  For cases not published at the NCCCSTS, we will provide direct links to the case materials, and instructors can email us to gain access to answer keys. We are still in the process of publishing the entire case collection, but we will ultimately have two or three cases for each quarter of general chemistry and one or two cases for each quarter of organic chemistry (at UCR, general chemistry and organic chemistry are each taught in a three-quarter, year-long sequence). Additionally, we will soon be creating Blackboard interfaces which can be used by your students to answer the case questions online. Once we create these Blackboard interfaces, we will provide downloadable zip files that can be uploaded into your own course management site. We expect these downloadable files to be available by the end of summer 2013. It is our hope that these materials improve the teaching and learning environment in your classrooms. If you have questions or comments about any of the cases, do not hesitate to contact us.

Dr. Jack Eichler (Principal Investigator; general chemistry; [email protected] )

Dr. Leonard Mueller (co-Principal Investigator; general chemistry; [email protected] )

Dr. Richard Hooley (co-Principal Investigator; organic chemistry; [email protected] )

General Chemistry Problem-Based Cases

• “The Global Warming Debate: A Case Study” Note: This case is done in the 3 rd  or 4 th  week of our first general chemistry course, and is done in order to provide an introduction to data analysis and scientific reasoning. The answer key and teaching notes are available upon request ( [email protected] ). Case Study Intro ( Click Here ) Case Study Activity ( Click Here ) Blackboard Test File for Case Study Questions ( link to zip file ) (Note: The questions for the case activity were downloaded from a Blackboard course management site, however the test file can be uploaded into any course management system that is capable of importing IMS files).  
• Fossil Fuels – “Liquid Coal: Producing Liquid Fuel from Non-Petroleum Sources" Case Study at NCCSTS ( Click Here )  
• Acid/Base Chemistry - "Using Oceans to Fight Global Warming?" Case Study at NCCSTS ( Click Here )  
• Kinetics - "Corn Ethanol: Using Corn to Make Fuel?" Case Study at NCCSTS ( Click Here )  
• Gas Laws - "Hydrogen Powered Cars: The Wave of the Future?" Case Study at NCCSTS ( Click Here )

General Chemistry Clicker Cases

• Atomic Theory – “History of the Atom – Part I” Case Study at NCCSTS ( Click Here )

Organic Chemistry Problem-Based Cases

• "Organic Chemistry and Your Cellphone: Organic Light-Emitting Diodes"  Case Study at NCCSTS ( Click Here )  
• Chirality and the Origins of Life  Case Study at NCCSTS ( Click Here )

Honors Organic Chemistry Problem-Based Cases

“Selective COX-II Inhibitors - the Story of Vioxx®: A Case Study in Drug Discovery"  This case was done in order to facilitate a high level discussion in our third quarter honors organic chemistry seminar. If you have questions about the case or need assistance with the answer key, email Dr. Richard Hooley ([email protected]).

 Case Study ( Click Here )  

“Overcoming Bacterial Antibiotic Resistance - the Story of Penicillin, Augmentin ®  and Vancomycin” This case was done in order to facilitate a high level discussion in our third quarter honors organic chemistry seminar. If you have questions about the case or need assistance with the answer key, email Dr. Richard Hooley ([email protected]). Case Study ( Click Here )  

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The pale horse: analytical chemistry in a forensic context - context and problem-based learning

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This problem-based case study sets analytical chemistry within the context of a forensic investigation of a suspicious death. 

Student handouts: The pale horse

The pale horse - cpbl - tutor guide, additional information.

The case study operates by supplying information in the form of reports from various official agencies (police, pathologist and forensic laboratory) to groups of students. The students request analysis of the various types of evidence collected in order to determine the cause of death, mode of administration of poison and suggest the identity of the possible perpetrators.

• Target year group: 2 and 3 
• Formal contact hours: 4-5
• Independent study hours: 12 
• Teacher notes
• Analytical chemistry
• Applications of chemistry

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This problem-based case study concerns the location of a titanium dioxide plant and evaluation of analytical methods. Students are asked to act as the management team at the plant and produce a five-year plan for the site.

A dip in the dribble: river pollution | context and problem-based learning

A problem solving case study in analytical, environmental and industrial chemistry

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Problem solving case studies in analytical and applied chemistry.

We have produced six problem solving case studies which have been designed in order to teach analytical and applied chemistry within a ‘real’ life context by developing problem solving and professional skills. The case studies use the contexts of forensic science pharmaceuticals environmental science and industrial chemistry. They present students with extended problems that are set in a ‘real’ context with incomplete or excessive data and require independent learning evaluation of data and information and in some cases do not lead to a single ‘correct’ answer. By tackling these cases students are able to see the relevance of analytical chemistry and so approach the activities with enthusiasm and interest. In order to successfully tackle a case study students must develop a range of professional skills such as communication team work project management etc.

The materials published on this page were originally created by the Higher Education Academy.

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Problem based case studies for analytical and applied chemistry

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Retrieved November 15th

Caroline Baillie

Joaquin Villegas

This paper examines how teachers in a graduate education class developed skills through group and one-on-one peer assessment of case studies. It demonstrates how the design, construction and peer assessment of case studies provided valuable realworld experience. It also taught them how to evaluate peers and how to accept evaluation from them.

Higher Education Pedagogies

Frances O'Brien

Journal of Chemical Education

Eleonora Del Federico

Journal of College Science Teaching

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Damber Kharka

In this paper I have shared some of my experiences on how to handle case studies in teaching with the intent to facilitate more discussions during our meeting over the two day conference on “research informed teaching” at Samtse College of Education organized by the Royal University of Bhutan in October 2014. We know that case studies are stories used as knowledge and skill transfer vehicles by which a lot of real life scenario is brought into the classroom to be discussed by the students and instructors. How we use case studies dependsuponthe objectives and the format of the course. My experience suggest that if it is a regular university dictated course with astrict timetable (one hour period everyday per subject) with pre-identified contents and has a large class size,it is not normally possible or at least not meaningfully efficient to go beyond the use ofsimple cases that will only help to illustrate the subject concepts and demonstrate afew practical aspects. However, if t...

Proceedings of the 4th annual International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies

Paula Hodgson , Pam Kwok

An outcome-based approach to teaching, learning and assessment has been strongly advocated by the University Grants Committee (UGC) in Hong Kong in recent years, so all courses now need to have teaching and learning activities and assessment tasks that are clearly aligned to enable students to demonstrate the intended learning outcomes. This paper examines two cohorts of business students studying ‘Service Marketing’ in an associate degree programme in a local community college in Hong Kong. It covers how students were expected to develop basic knowledge and concepts in service marketing, such as managing service encounters, customer complaints and service recovery, and developing an integrated service-marketing strategy, generic skills and a professional attitude in marketing various service industries in a rapidly changing business environment. A number of pedagogical strategies were used to create a learning community that embraced intellectual sharing so that students would benefit as they contributed both in class and in the online environment on the course. To help their students to develop critical thinking, problem-solving skills and self-confidence during their studies, faculty members used real-life cases so that students could associate with and apply theories in practice. As an extension of theories learned in class, students were expected to develop an acute sensitivity to ethical practices through case studies. Although student talk generally takes up about 5 percent of class time across all disciplines [1], students in this course were encouraged to participate in an e-learning platform to exchange ideas with classmates and present their discussion summaries or suggested solutions after tutorial sessions. Because the ability to work effectively in groups is often practised in the workplace, students were required to conduct group projects about good and bad service-marketing practice based on the cases. Peer evaluation on a group basis was carried out during the group project presentations, which served to familiarize students with the assessment criteria and to develop in them the kind of evaluative skills looked for in professionals. Finally, students were required to show individual cognitive ability by demonstrating their declarative knowledge in a timed sit-in examination. The assessment experience of students was explored and evaluated to see how they performed in different types of assessment task. Recommendations are made on how to achieve further enhancements in preparing students for their future careers or further study.

Carmel McNaught

1. Background A case is a story, often told as a sequence of events in a particular place. Often, there are human actors woven into the case story (Shulman, 1996). A case-based approach emphasizes the active construction of knowledge gained from simulated experience. Cases should provide clear contexts in which learners can construct meanings and concepts; Morrison (2001) calls this' actionable learning'.

American Institute of Biological Sciences

Clyde Herreid

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• Published: 21 April 2022

The case for data science in experimental chemistry: examples and recommendations

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The physical sciences community is increasingly taking advantage of the possibilities offered by modern data science to solve problems in experimental chemistry and potentially to change the way we design, conduct and understand results from experiments. Successfully exploiting these opportunities involves considerable challenges. In this Expert Recommendation, we focus on experimental co-design and its importance to experimental chemistry. We provide examples of how data science is changing the way we conduct experiments, and we outline opportunities for further integration of data science and experimental chemistry to advance these fields. Our recommendations include establishing stronger links between chemists and data scientists; developing chemistry-specific data science methods; integrating algorithms, software and hardware to ‘co-design’ chemistry experiments from inception; and combining diverse and disparate data sources into a data network for chemistry research.

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Acknowledgements

This article evolved from presentations and discussions at the workshop ‘At the Tipping Point: A Future of Fused Chemical and Data Science’ held in September 2020, sponsored by the Council on Chemical Sciences, Geosciences, and Biosciences of the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences. The authors thank the members of the Council for their encouragement and assistance in developing this workshop. In addition, the authors are indebted to the agencies responsible for funding their individual research efforts, without which this work would not have been possible.

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Yano, J., Gaffney, K.J., Gregoire, J. et al. The case for data science in experimental chemistry: examples and recommendations. Nat Rev Chem 6 , 357–370 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-022-00382-w

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