Science is a process of discovery. In the laboratory, students conduct experiments, solve problems, and use the scientific method. Collectively, a laboratory experience should be experiential with students gaining breadth and depth in their scientific skills. The laboratory program is experiential in nature and should be designed at a curricular level and structured so that skills increase with complexity as students progress through the curriculum. The figure below represents the overarching outcomes of laboratory experiences and their defining attributes.
Policy on Remote Laboratory Experiences
Section 5.2.1
Virtual/at-home/simulated labs can supplement but not replace in person experiences for the foundational and in-depth courses.
Chemistry is an empirical science that requires the safe and effective physical manipulation of materials, equipment, and instrumentation. This first-person experiential expertise cannot be developed solely through simulations.
Remote Lab Experiences
- One introductory laboratory course (prior to the foundational courses) may be conducted remotely or outside of the University laboratory environments.
- Kitchen chemistry experiments can supplement the in person experience in non-major and introductory chemistry sequences.
- Kitchen chemistry remote labs involve using everyday items that you can find in your kitchen or local discount store to explore basic chemistry. Appropriate safety precautions must be considered in designing these remote lab experiences.
Equity for students with disabilities
Core value to provide access to a high-quality chemical education to all students. Whenever possible, programs should do their best to reasonably accommodate student needs by modifying laboratory experiments or environments. In general, programs should avoid offering fully virtual laboratory experiences in place of in-person experiences as accommodations.
Laboratory Course Requirements
Section 5.2.2
Critical Requirements
Lab Hours and Structure
Students completing the requirements for a certified degree must complete a minimum of 350 hours of in person lab work that builds on, but does not include, introductory experiences.
- 220 hours of lab must be from courses taught in the chemistry program beyond the introductory courses (general chemistry).
- Undergraduate research or chemistry adjacent laboratory courses (on or off campus) can account for up to 130 of the required 350 laboratory hours.
- A student using research to meet the 350 hours must prepare a well-written, comprehensive, and well-documented research report, including safety considerations where appropriate and thorough and current references to peer-reviewed literature.
- No more than 25% of lab work can be in computational chemistry .
Breadth of Student Laboratory Experiences
Laboratory courses must:
- Include experiences in a minimum of 4 of the 5 areas of ABIOP .
- Provide experiences with one or more of the following:
- synthesis and production,
- purification,
- preparation of samples for analysis,
- qualitative analysis,
- quantitative analysis,
- measurement of chemical properties,
- structure determination, or
- modeling.
Depth of Student Laboratory Experiences
- Laboratory experiences must build on practical techniques developed in earlier lab courses.
- Laboratory skills are structured so that the complexity of tasks increase as students progress through the curriculum.
- As they progress, students must encounter some lab experiences that are open-ended or incompletely defined questions or unfamiliar situations.
- Students must have regular hands-on experience with modern instrumentation.
Normal Expectations
Lab Hours and Structure
- A program should provide students with the opportunity to complete approximately 400 hours of lab work that builds on introductory, in class laboratory experiences.
- Undergraduate research or chemistry adjacent courses (on or off campus) can account for up to 180 of the required 400 laboratory hours.
- Lab experiences reflect current standards and practices in the chemical science.
- Programs should evaluate and update their lab curricula on a regular basis to reflect modern questions and techniques in chemistry.
Breadth of Student Laboratory Experiences
- Gain experiences with at least 4 classes of chemical compounds (small organic molecules, small inorganic molecules, biological macromolecules, polymers, supramolecular systems, meso- or nanoscale materials, or extended solids)
Depth of Student Laboratory Experiences
- Students regularly have lab experiences that are open-ended or incompletely defined questions or unfamiliar situations.
- Students participate in multi-week laboratory experiences where they can revise ideas and build on prior findings.
- Lab experiences relate to modern research problems.
- Students participate in a Classroom Undergraduate Research Experiences (CURE) or research experience during their undergraduate career.
- Students should have opportunities to have hands-on experiences instruments from 4 of 5 of the instrumental categories (atomic spectroscopy, molecular spectroscopy, separations and chromatography, electrochemistry, and mass spectrometry).
Markers of Excellence
Lab Hours and Structure
- Instructors develop or adapt new approaches or practices that enhance student skills and disseminate them to the larger community.
Breadth of Student Laboratory Experiences
- Students gain laboratory experience in all 5 areas of ABIOP .
- Instruction is provided so that students gain experience with one or more of the following: programming, data analytics, and, or, informatics.
Depth of Student Laboratory Experiences
- Students work on problems that contribute new knowledge to the discipline.
- Most students participate in Classroom Undergraduate Research Experiences (CURE) or undergraduate research experiences.
- Students should have in depth experience with instrumentation and understand how to troubleshoot instrumental problems.
- Students have comprehensive exposure to all instrument categories.
Student Skills Learned in Laboratory Courses
Section 5.2.3
Critical Requirements
Connect Experiment to Theory
Students must:
- Use accepted scientific theories to explain their data and analyses.
- Develop or select appropriate models for their systems.
- Understand the limitation of models and theories.
Construct Scientific Explanations & Arguments
Students must:
- Construct explanations of their results.
- Use evidence to support the interpretation of their results.
- Use mathematics and computational thinking.
Students must be able to:
- Maintain an effective laboratory notebook/record.
- Analyze data using appropriate statistical methods and software.
- Understand uncertainties in experimental measurements.
- Assess experimental errors and draw appropriate conclusions.
Students must be
Exposed to computational chemistry and chemical dynamics simulation packages.
Representation and Visualization of Data
Students must be able to:
- Present data in graphs and tables.
- Draw 2-D and 3-D structures using appropriate software.
Experimental Design
Laboratory experiences must be developed in such a way that students regularly:
- make predictions and develop hypotheses and
- design experiments to answer scientific questions.
Normal Expectations
Connect Experiment to Theory
Students should:
- Develop proficiency with modeling software, ideally allowing them hands-on experience in directly comparing theory and experiment.
Construct Scientific Explanations & Arguments
Students should:
- Have multiple opportunities to develop arguments using different types of data (structural, statistical, etc.).
Students should:
- Be introduced to modern laboratory record-keeping tools including laboratory information management systems (LIMS) and electronic laboratory notebooks (ELNs).
- Use best practices for data storage, access, sharing, and archiving.
Students should:
- Use computational chemistry and chemical dynamics simulation packages.
- Have experience writing code in standard software packages.
Representation and Visualization of Data
Students should be able to:
- Effectively present data in graphs and tables.
- Draw effective 2-D and 3-D structures.
Experimental Design
Laboratory experiences are developed in such a way that students regularly execute experiments that they design and evaluate the effectiveness of their experimental design.
Markers of Excellence
Construct Scientific Explanations & Arguments
Students in these programs develop compelling arguments using multiple pieces of supporting evidence.
Students in these programs:
- Understand data compliance and integrity issues within a regulatory context.
- Work with partners to ensure students have appropriate documentation, data analysis, and data management skills necessary to make them marketable in their areas.
- Develop programming skills.
Computational Skills
- Students are proficient with computational chemistry and chemical dynamics simulation packages.
Representation and Visualization of Data
- Students are aware of multiple methods for representing data and can select the most appropriate method.
Experimental Design
Laboratory experiences are developed in such a way that students regularly use the iterative design process to advance scientific inquiry.
