While it is fashionable to decry the inaccurate depictions of modern instrumentation on television, there are also some valuable lessons we can learn.  Stripped of the technical details, these instruments are featured as invaluable tools in advancing the plot.  In a similar way, we have systematically integrated an array of chemical instrumentation, including gas chromatography, atomic absorption spectrometry and powder X-ray diffraction into new guided-inquiry laboratory modules for our first-year labs.  In each example, we placed an emphasis on quickly discovering how the instrument can be used as a tool to solve a problem and left the more sophisticated appreciation for the fundamentals of the technique for the post-lab analysis and write-up.  Presented in this way, students are generally more at ease with operating the instrumentation and generate for themselves many of the �how does it work� questions that are routinely glossed over in pre-lab preparation.

What CSI can teach us about chemical instrumentation in the first-year laboratory

247th National Meeting (2014)

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