Florida Institute of Technology

Dr. Winkelmann's Chemical Education Projects

One of the best parts of being a professor is that I have the freedom to teach chemistry in a way that helps students understand and appreciate the subject. This goes beyond writing lecture notes and performing in-class demonstrations. Because chemistry is such a challenging subject, it is worthwhile to explore new methods of teaching, especially those that take advantage of advances in information technology.

These chemical education materials are only useful if they help students learn chemistry. Therefore, I am always in need of students who can help develop and evaluate tutorials and laboratory experiments. Sometimes, experiments that were designed for a laboratory course turn into small research projects. Students majoring in any science, engineering or science education are especially welcome as long as you have completed (or are currently enrolled in) the second semester of general chemistry.

I am currently developing several projects that are funded by external grants and/or supported by Florida Tech. You can read about my current interests below. Follow the links to see what we have created so far.

Nanotechnology Laboratory Experiments: Nanotechnology is a field of study that focuses on the synthesis, analysis, properties and applications of materials that have dimensions on the order of 10^-9 meters (equal to one nanometer). Obviously, this is a very small size. At this small size, materials have different properties than the bulk-sized analogues with which we are more familiar. As a field of study, nanotechnology is less than 30 years old and is very popular because there is so much to explore and discover. Nanotechnology will affect all of us in our careers and everyday life. Florida Tech's students need to be prepared for this new field of science.

Drs. Jim Brenner, Ming Zhang and I teach a 1-credit nanotechnology laboratory course each spring. Most students who enroll are freshmen and sophomores. Students perform a variety of experiments, including the synthesis and analysis of nanomaterials. They use some advanced instrumentation, such as a scanning tunneling microscope and an atomic force microscope. Both these instruments allow the user to see a material's surface with atomic-scale resolution. Equipment was purchased through a grant from the National Science Foundation.

This is a new type of course and there are not a lot of published experiments for undergraduate nanotechnology courses. I am interested in developing these experiments with the help of Florida Tech students. The experiments that we develop are used in the class and published in the chemical education literature.

Terraforming Mars and General Chemistry: Terraforming is the process of intentionally modifying a planet to make it more hospitable. It is also called planetary engineering. Today, Mars is a cold, airless desert but it could be altered to support life, even humans. This process will take many, many years but is possible given present and near-future technology. Click here for more information about terraforming. An understanding of chemistry will be vital for terraforming to succeed.

I am developing general chemistry curriculum materials that will use terraforming Mars as an example of how to apply chemical principles that are presented in a standard general chemistry lecture and textbook. Homework exercises, a database of relevant articles and laboratory experiments are being created as part of this project.

This work was supported by a grant from the Florida Space Grant Consortium, which is interested in promoting the public's understanding of science and the space program, especially in Florida. I have been able to support several students while they created and tested some of the laboratory experiments.

Multimedia Learning Resources: Technology can provide new tools for helping students learn chemistry, especially outside the classroom. Textbooks are not going to disappear soon but they do not have to be the only way students learn. I am interested in using technology to improve the quality of teaching and learning chemistry. This can lead to many different products. Drs. Monica Baloga, Clayton Baum and I filmed short videos that help students prepare for their chemistry lab classes. With much help from an undergraduate assistant, I created interactive Excel tutorials for physical chemistry students that bring the graphs in their textbook to life. I also created some online tutorials for general chemistry. A narrated slide show walks the student through common general chemistry calculations. Future projects will explore teaching chemistry in massively multiplayer online worlds, such as Second Life.

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