The University of Hartford Department of Chemistry and the chemistry program of the University High School of Science and Engineering have had an ongoing relationship intended to provide the students of the University High School experience with the Bruker 400 MHz nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer within the University’s Department of Chemistry.  The high school is physically located on the campus of the University of Hartford, but is a Hartford public magnet school founded on the philosophy of the Early College Model, with qualified high school students having the opportunity to enroll in University of Hartford classes.  The high school student body is determined by lottery, with an even mix of students from the city of Hartford and the surrounding suburbs.<br/><br/>The initial thrust of the collaboration was designed to enhance the high school chemistry curriculum with a link to college-level study in chemistry through a synthesis and purification of aspirin followed by an analysis of the precursors and the products using nuclear magnetic resonance.  The cornerstone of the student experience continues to be the hands-on experience of preparing their samples for the spectrometer, inputting information into the automation program of the NMR, loading the sample tray onto the auto-sampler, and receiving their spectra via hard copy and email.  As the collaboration has continued, unknown samples have been introduced into the sample handling in the University setting, with analysis of spectra taking place in the high-school laboratory using the offline software available from the Bruker website.  The long-term vision of our collaboration, enhanced by Covid restrictions, has been to go beyond the students’ first hands-on NMR experience, allowing them to prepare samples which they would analyze remotely from their high-school laboratory.  The spectral information would be transferred directly to the high-school computer system where they could then begin the evaluation of the spectra immediately.  Progress toward these goals and an insight into the educational approaches of teaching NMR to high-school students will be presented, along with implications to undergraduate instruction in managing the computer systems to move data to external environments, especially when restrictions to physical meetings are in place.

University-high school collaboration: More connectivity has advantages

ACS Spring 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.