Consortium Aims To Modernize Physical Chemistry Lab Program: ▪ Selected colleges and universities, funded by Pew Charitable Trusts, work on curriculum, instruments, experiments

Chemists at a consortium of mid-Atlantic colleges and universities are working on an ambitious project to modernize the physical chemistry laboratory program. According to project leaders, p-chem labs have changed little in the past 20 years or more, so the effort is sorely needed. Results of the project, which has been sponsored by Pew Charitable Trusts, will appear in a book to be published next summer by the American Chemical Society. "Good laboratory programs draw students, and poor ones repel them," asserts project director Colin F. MacKay, a chemistry professor at Haverford College, Pa. Unfortunately, most physical chemistry laboratory programs seem to fall into the latter category. "Physical chemistry is a crucial course in chemistry programs," MacKay observes. "Its position in the curriculum and the fact that it is the most mathematical and most abstract of the core courses make it more than any other a gateway course for majors. Combine these attributes with ...