The undergraduate lab practical transformation

The mainstay of chemistry laboratory classes has historically been Berry-style experiments designed to reinforce the theory taught in lectures. When students are given step-by-step instructions on how to run a titration, for example, the assumption from the teacher’s point of view is that the students would learn how to titrate. But from the students’ point of view they just needed to know some numbers so that they could figure out the answer to the question because that’s what they’ll be assessed on. Students can successfully perform the steps without necessarily understanding what they’re doing, leaving them unable to repeat the technique without a detailed recipe later on.

By the 1980s, it was clear that students who are explicitly taught practical skills and how to design and adapt experiments in their first few years of undergraduate study are better prepared for final year research projects. Academic culture is notoriously slow to change, but over the past decade or so, a handful of universities in the UK and beyond have made wholesale changes to the way their chemistry laboratory classes are conducted. Many others have taken – and are still taking – baby steps away from traditional chemistry lab classes.