Lab Manual for Chemistry: Atoms First

This laboratory manual presents a curriculum that is organized around an atoms first approach to general chemistry. Our motivation for writing this manual is to (1) tap into the natural curiosity present in all of us and provide engaging experiments that students will find interesting, (2) emphasize topics that students find particularly challenging in the general chemistry lecture course, and (3) create a laboratory environment that encourages students, on occasion, to “solve puzzles” and not just “follow recipes.” All too often, students view general chemistry lab as a boring exercise in which an exact set of instructions is followed, leading to an answer that, in many cases, results in a good grade regardless of how much learning has taken place. To these students, the successful lab is the one that takes the least amount of time! Unfortunately, a huge opportunity to get students truly turned on to science is missed. To us, the laboratory represents high-stakes ground for engagement and relatively low stakes for grading, as the laboratory is typically a single-credit course or minor component to the lecture grade. Thus, while the rigor of the experiments in this manual can be tuned to meet the needs of the instructor, our hope is that students will be encouraged to “play” (safely) with chemical concepts and laboratory techniques, with grades simply being a natural consequence of their laboratory actions. To facilitate such a mindset, this manual has been written to provide instructors with a weekly tool that can attract and keep student interest, while providing important connections to the material covered in an atoms first lecture course. Our philosophy: student curiosity leads to engagement, which leads to discovery, which leads to learning.
The manual is for a freshman-level general chemistry laboratory course, and serves as an ideal supplement for any atoms first general chemistry textbook (such as Chemistry: Atoms First by Julia Burdge and Jason Overby). It is designed for students at all levels, from those seeing chemistry for the first time to chemistry majors.