An integrated lecture, virtual instrumentation lab approach to teaching UV-Vis spectroscopy

In a chemistry instrumentation course, the teachers explain to students how instruments function and which their basic technical principles are. We integrated an interactive UV-Visible spectrophotometer simulator into a chemical instrumentation course in an attempt to improve the teaching procedure. The students were divided into two groups, the experimental group (EG) and the control group (CG). The students of EG participated in an instrumentation course in which we distributed to them the components of an old spectrophotometer and presented them with figures and animations about the component's functions using Power-Point presentation. During the presentation a discussion took place and we posed questions to the students in order to make them think about the technical principles of the UV-Visible spectrophotometer. After the presentation, the students performed virtual experiments using UV-Vis spectrophotometer simulator on personal Computers and they shared measurements, observations and conclusions about their experiments using the LAN (local area network). In the students of CG we presented the spectrophotometer and its components following the traditional way, drawing the components' function and the structure of instrument on the blackboard. Comparison of the two groups showed that the EG students valued the opportunity to collaborate with other peers during the lecture and also they found this teaching procedure useful. As a result they felt more confident to manipulate a real instrument and the EG students better understood the function and the technical principles of the instrument than the CG students. © 2007 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.