b

CCLI GRANT PROPOSAL NARRATIVE

 

 

The CCLI Grant Proposal Narrative is downloadable as an HTML or Word97 document

 

Narrative Index:

 

 

a. Current Situation

 

b. Development Plan

 

c. Equipment

 

d. Faculty Expertise

 

e. Dissemination and Evaluation

 

 

 

 

 

Current Situation 

 

The South Metropolitan Regional Higher Educational Consortium (SMRHEC) is a group of colleges and universities that collaborates on education and technology issues common to the south Chicagoland metropolitan area. Members of SMRHEC include: Governors State University (GSU) (4y), University of St. Francis (USF) (4y), South Suburban College (SSC) (2y), Joliet Junior College (2y), Moraine Valley Community College (2y), Prairie State College (2y), Kankakee Community College (2y), Lewis University (4y), Olivet Nazarene University (4y) , Trinity Christian College (4y), and St. Xavier University (4y). During the most recently completed academic year, SMRHEC institutions enrolled 56,870 students. SMRHEC has connected campuses and promoted distance learning through the use of interactive classrooms, has constructed a low-power regional instructional television system, and has established a regional information system located on the internet (ABELINC).

Of concern to SMRHEC is the high cost of purchasing the equipment required to provide a competitive undergraduate education. For example, the cost of a Fourier transform-nuclear magnetic resonance (FT-NMR) spectrometer, equipped with a superconducting magnet, starts at ~$170,000. Currently, none of the SMRHEC institutions own an FT-NMR spectrometer. The cost of equipping all member institutions with an FT-NMR spectrometer is prohibitive. Without ready and practical education in FT-NMR spectroscopy, however, the culturally and economically diverse students, of the south metropolitan region, who major in chemistry, biology, environmental science, pre-med, etc., are not receiving the competitive education and training that they deserve. SMRHEC believes that technology, in particular the world wide web (WWW), can facilitate the convenient sharing of costly equipment among regional institutions and thereby provide a competitive education at an affordable cost.

Faculty from GSU, USF, and SSC, of the SMRHEC, have collaborated on this proposal to establish a regional superconducting FT-NMR instrument, with the intention of connecting the instrument, via the WWW, to all SMRHEC institutions. Only three institutions are involved in the initial stages of the project, in order to maintain a manageable and effective group. Once the project, in particular the WWW connnection, has proven successful; the instrument will be available to all interested faculty from any SMRHEC institution.

Regarding the institutions involved in the initial stages of the project, Governors State University is accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, as are all SMRHEC member institutions. The primary mission of GSU is teaching, especially through the use of flexible teaching strategies and through advanced instructional technologies. GSU is an active partner in the economic and social developments of the surrounding metropolitan regions. GSU was established by the State of Illinois, in 1969, as an upper division baccalaureate (junior and senior year offerings) and masters university to serve the south Chicagoland area. Enrollment has grown to 6,117 students (2,966 undergraduate and 3,151 graduate students). Women constitute the majority of GSU students (4,265, 69.7 %) and a sizable number of GSU students (1947, 31.8 %) were identified as racial or ethnic minorities (1,610 Black/Non-Hispanic, 245 Hispanic, 9 Native American, and 83 Asian/Pacific Islander).

American Chemical Society (ACS) approval of the GSU B.S. degree program in chemistry was attained in 1998. The GSU Chemistry degree program contains a series of additional courses which, when successfully completed, will also lead to the Standard High School Certificate. The Certificate allows holders to teach high school chemistry in Illinois.

The GSU B.S. chemistry degree program has grown significantly since it was first offered in 1985. One full-time faculty position has been added (the degree program has seven tenured faculty associated with it) and annual enrollment has grown to an average of nearly 25 upper division B.S. chemistry majors over the past five years. On average, the upper division B.S. chemistry degree program has served more than seven female chemistry majors (31 %) and nearly 10 racial or ethnic minority members (39 %) per year, over the past five years. The number of B.S. chemistry graduates has grown to an average of nearly nine graduates per year (30 % women and 23 % racial or ethnic minorities), for the past five years (Appendix c). The average age of GSU chemistry majors is nearly 28 years old, reflecting the nature of the degree program and its nontraditional students. Courses in the program are offered evenings or weekends, to accommodate the large majority of our students who are employed full time and are part time students. The GSU chemistry student typically seeks a B.S. degree as a means towards career advancement or as retraining for a career change.

University of St. Francis was established in 1920 by the Congregation of the Third Order of St. Francis of Mary Immaculate, for the education of its members. In 1925, under the title of Assissi Junior College, its doors opened to women outside the congregation. Beginning in the fall of 1930, a senior college curriculum was established and the name College of St. Francis was adopted. In 1971, the college became coeducational. In 1980, a master’s level program in health services administration was offered followed in the early 1990’s by several more graduate offerings. Upon action of the Board of Trustees, in May of 1997 and effective on January 1, 1998, the College of St. Francis became the University of St. Francis.

The curriculum developments proposed herein will impact USF B.S. biology and B.S. environmental science majors. The biology degree program is appropriate for students interested in pre-professional training, graduate school, or high school teaching. Biology majors are encouraged to complement their on campus course work and research with intern and course work opportunities at nearby institutions such as Argonne National Labs, Shedd Aquarium, Morton Arboretum, Will County Forest Preserve District, BEST Environmental, Tri-County Services, Kendall County Soil and Conservation District, or the State Forensic Labs. The environmental science degree program is appropriate for students interested in an interdisciplinary major that will prepare them for technical jobs in industry, government, conservation organizations, or graduate school in ecology, biology, or law. Graduates of these programs have successfully pursued careers in biological or chemical research, forensic science, physical therapy, pharmacy, medicine, dentistry, teaching, and related areas.

South Suburban College is a two year community college founded in 1926 as Thornton Junior College. It is the second oldest two year college in Illinois. 1997-1998 enrollment, at SSC, was 5909 students; 3540 full time and 2619 part time. The student body at SSC is 45 % Black/Non-Hispanic and 6 % Hispanic. Females constitute 67 % of the student body. Typically, 44 % of SSC students continue on to four year institutions. In a typical semester, 240 students are enrolled in chemistry courses with 15 students enrolled in the year-long organic sequence and 12 students enrolled in a one semester organic survey course.

Initial local interest in acquiring an FT-NMR, for undergraduate instruction, was triggered by the ACS Committee on Professional Training review of the GSU application for certification of its B.S. chemistry degree program. The Committee suggested that GSU develop a plan to acquire an FT-NMR for undergraduate instruction. An investigation of this suggestion, through interviews with GSU chemistry graduates and through discussions with other SMRHEC faculty, coupled with the interest, in NMR spectroscopy, of regional employers, (Equistar, Morris IL, operates a 200 MHz FT-NMR and has donated two large liquid nitrogen dewars, in support of this proposal. GSU has also recently provided 1H NMR spectra for Sherwin-Williams, Chicago Heights, IL; McIntyre Group, University Park, IL; and AlPharma, Chicago Heights, IL) confirmed the need for hands-on FT-NMR instruction throughout the south Chicagoland region.

Currently, GSU provides undergraduate NMR spectroscopy instruction in five lecture courses: Organic Chemistry I & II, Physical Chemistry II, Instrumental Analysis, and Advanced Inorganic Chemistry. Undergraduate laboratory NMR instruction is provided on a 60 MHz continuous wave 1H NMR spectrometer (Appendix a) in the following five courses: CHEM 342 Organic Chemistry I: Laboratory (Students characterize the compounds diethyl malonate and 4-methyl-2-pentanone.); CHEM 344 Organic Chemistry II: Laboratory (Students characterize the compounds 9,10-dihydroanthracene-9,10-endo-a,b-succinic anhydride and benzhydrylidene indene.1); CHEM 427 Instrumental Analysis Laboratory (Students determine the pKa values of organic bases and measure the proton NMR spectrum of acetylacetone.2a,b); CHEM 434 Advanced Inorganic Laboratory (Students determine magnetic moments by Evans’ method3 and characterize the compounds Mo(CO)4(2,2’-bipyridine),4 CoH[P(OPh)3]4,5 and ReH5(PPh3)3.6); and CHEM 450 Organic Synthesis and Structural Methods (Students prepare known compounds by following procedures found in recent journal articles.7-9 Students also adapt synthetic procedures to prepare new compounds. This latter approach is one of several examples of open-ended research problems, in the GSU undergraduate chemistry curriculum. The CHEM 450 research problem is designed to provide a different approach to teaching chemistry by presenting students with challenging research questions that allows students to actively and creatively address interesting problems. Examples of compounds prepared and characterized by CHEM 450 students include N-acetyltyrosine N-ethylamide and hexaphenylbenzene, which is prepared, in a five step synthesis, from benzoin and Z-stilbene. The availability of multinuclear and/or variable temperature and/or multidimensional FT-NMR analyses will significantly enhance the creative learning experience that this course provides). See Appendix b for course info. Except for the current NMR spectrometer, the available chemistry instrumentation, at GSU, is generally considered to be satisfactory (Appendix a).

Currently, USF provides undergraduate NMR spectroscopy instruction in three lecture courses (CH 224 Organic Chemistry I, CH 226 Organic Chemistry II, and CH 331 Instrumental Analysis) and, until very recently, three lab courses (CH 225 Organic Chemistry Lab I, CH 227 Organic Chemistry Lab II, and CH 331 Instrumental Analysis). Lab NMR instruction is currently on hold due to the failure of the probe in the USF 60 MHz 1H NMR spectrometer. In the above courses, students are introduced to the theory of interpreting NMR spectra and have had hands-on experience with generating spectra for the elucidation, identification, and characterization of chemical structures. For example, a number of students have worked on Juglone, 5-hydroxy-1,4-naphthoquinone, a natural allelopath found in the black walnut tree. Students were able to isolate as well as synthesize Juglone then compare the samples with NMR spectroscopy. Similarly, students use NMR, in addition to other techniques such as FT-IR or UV-Vis spectroscopy and GC-MS, to elucidate the structures of organic unknowns. Students also learn more about NMR spectroscopy by performing a series of textbook experiments such as: application of NMR chemical shifts and coupling constants, pKa determinations for organic heterocyclic bases, study and measurement of tautomeric equilibrium and many others.2

Currently, SSC provides instruction on the theory and interpretation of NMR spectra in CHM 203 and CHM 204, the year-long organic sequence and CHM 205, the survey course in organic chemistry. Previously, SSC provided hands-on instruction, with 1H NMR spectroscopy on an A-60 60 MHz NMR spectrometer that was donated by local industry. Unfortunately, the instrument, which is more than 30 years old, is no longer operable.

 

 

Development Plan

 

 

The tools used to implement the proposed curricular developments will be an FT-NMR spectrometer and the WWW. In an adaptation of a successfully completed project, funded by NSF, the proposed FT-NMR will be owned by GSU and will be connected to USF and SSC (and eventually all other SMRHEC institutions) via the WWW.10,11 The user-friendly and platform-independent WWW interface will allow students at remote sites to access all functions of the NMR spectrometer necessary to acquire and to analyze data. The WWW interface will, therefore, allow students to focus on the experiment being performed rather than on manufacturer-specific jargon. The WWW interface will be established, by a GSU computer science faculty member, based upon an existing successful interface. Samples will be prepared by each institution and will be exchanged by a package delivery service. Instrumental time will be set aside, on a regular basis, for each institution. A list-serve will be established to facilitate scheduling and trouble-shooting of the instrument.

Given the scope of the project and the size limitations of this proposal, we will discuss only curricular developments at the institutions involved in the initial stages of the project, GSU, USF, and SSC. We note, however, that the curricular developments implemented at GSU, USF, and SSC will be available to other SMRHEC faculty (vide infra). The development plan at GSU, USF, and SSC will be centered around a single set of knowledge and skills that will be delivered in a set of core courses: the year-long organic sequence, instrumental analysis, advanced inorganic lab, and a senior level lab course in organic. The more fundamental and more important aspects of FT-NMR, acquisition and interpretation of 1H and 13C NMR spectra plus the nature of the FT-NMR experiment, will be delivered in the earlier courses of the set, the year-long organic sequence and instrumental analysis. Important but less fundamental aspects of FT-NMR (heteronuclear coupling, the relationship between temperature and fluxionality, and multidimensional NMR structural analysis) will be delivered in a later course, advanced inorganic. An open-ended research problem calling on students to creatively integrate their knowledge of NMR will provide a capstone experience, with respect to NMR, in the senior lab course in organic. Further applications of the instrument, beyond teaching the core set of knowledge and skills outlined above, such as measuring the activation energy for cyclopentadienyl rotation in n-butylferrocene (physical chemistry lab)12 or a qualitative determination of pollutants extracted from Lake Michigan fish (environmental chem lab) or applying FT-NMR to student research projects will also occur (vide supra).

Students will benefit from early instruction in 13C NMR spectroscopy, in the year-long organic lab sequences at GSU (CHEM 341-344), USF (CH 224-227), and SSC (CHM 203, 204). The acquisition and interpretation of 1H and 13C NMR spectra of compounds such as diethyl malonate, 4-methyl-2-pentanone, 9,10-dihydroanthracene-9,10-endo-a,b-succinic anhydride, Juglone, and 13C NMR characterization of benzhydrilene indene will be used to teach students the most basic application of NMR spectroscopy, qualitative analysis of organics. FT-NMR will also be used, in the organic sequence, to quantitatively analyze the dihalogen products from a free radical halogenation of iso-pentyl chloride. Currently GC is used to analyze the products but FT-NMR is preferred, due to the qualitative information that is also available.

The instrumental analysis lab courses (GSU CHEM 427 and USF CH 331) will include an experiment to explore the nature of the FT-NMR experiment.13 The proposed experiment, which was developed with support from NSF, will illustrate the equivalence between a time domain measurement and a frequency domain output, will illustrate the effect of signal averaging on the signal-to noise ratio, and will teach students how to estimate the spin-lattice relaxation time, in order to efficiently collect data. Given the difficulties that instrumental analysis students have in grasping the nature of the FT-NMR experiment, we believe that an experiment that illustrates some fundamental aspects of FT-NMR will be very beneficial.

In advanced inorganic chemistry lab (GSU CHEM 434), the curricular development will extend an experiment, in the GSU currciulum, in which students prepare and characterize the compound ReH5(PPh3)3.6 The goals for this experiment are to teach students vacuum line techniques, to demonstrate a reductive elimination reaction, and to teach students how to use NMR spectroscopy to characterize inorganic compounds. The NMR characterization demonstrates coupling between 31P nuclei and hydride ligands. The binomial quartet splitting of the hydride resonance illustrates, when compared with the 1H NMR spectrum of the ReH7(PPh3)2 starting material, that the ReH5(PPh3)3 product contains three 31P nuclei.

The proposed development is based upon a recent report, from our laboratory, which describes the preparation of ReH4[h2-(1,2-C6H4)CHNMe](PPh3)2, and a recent report, by Crabtree et al., which describes the 1H NMR structural determination of a similar compound, ReH5(PPh3)2(py).14,15 Students will prepare and characterize, by NMR spectroscopy, ReH4[h2-(1,2-C6H4)CHNMe](PPh3)2. The preparation of ReH4[h2-(1,2-C6H4)CHNMe](PPh3)2 will suffice for teaching students vacuum line techniques and for demonstrating a reductive elimination reaction. In addition the experiment will demonstrate an oxidative addition reaction, will provide an example of the importance of the chelate effect, and will better teach the use of NMR for the characterization of inorganic compounds.

In the NMR characterization, proton decoupled and selectively proton decoupled 31P NMR spectra will be acquired. The splitting pattern of the selectively decoupled 31P resonance will be diagnostic for the number of hydride ligands present on ReH4[h2-(1,2-C6H4)CHNMe](PPh3)2, an analytical problem that is often quite vexing. Next, students will measure the low temperature 1H NMR spectrum of ReH4[h2-(1,2-C6H4)CHNMe](PPh3)2. At -90 oC, the single hydride resonance observed in the room temperature 1H NMR spectrum becomes three resonances with relative intensities of 1:2:1. The low temperature 1H NMR spectrum of the compound corresponds to the structure of ReH4[h2-(1,2-C6H4)CHNPh](PPh3)2, which was determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis.14 Finally, 2-dimensional rotating-frame Overhauser spectroscopy (ROESY) will be used to assign low temperature hydride resonances to specific hydride ligands, based upon the dodecahedral structure of ReH4[h2-(1,2-C6H4)CHNPh](PPh3)2. The ROESY analysis relies upon the spatial relationships among hydride ligands and upon the spatial relationships between hydride ligands and the methyl protons of the ortho-metalated ligand. The NMR experiments will teach students: the usefulness of selective heteroatom decoupling for determining compound stoichiometry; the relationship between temperature and fluxionality, on the NMR time scale; and the use of two-dimensional techniques to analyze the structure of a compound.

Many other experiments could accomplish the same goals as the above inorganic experiment and several of those might be more pedagogically sound. None of those experiments, however, are as valuable to the GSU student as the above experiment. The unique factor, with respect to GSU students, concerning the above experiment is that it is based on research performed at GSU by GSU students (anecdotally, the first preparation of the compound of interest, ReH4[h2-(1,2-C6H4)CHNPh](PPh3)2, occurred in the laboratory course that will be affected; another example of GSU’s adoption of the open-ended research model, for student learning, in a traditional undergraduate chemistry course). Given that GSU is educating, during evenings and on weekends, a pool of largely nontraditional chemistry students (vide supra) who have transferred from other institutions, we have found that our students generally lack the confidence that they can compete with traditional students from more prestigious chemistry degree programs. This lack of confidence persists despite recent approval of the GSU chemistry degree program by the ACS and despite relatively good performances on ACS standardized exams (recent scores were as high as the 87th percentile for the Advanced Inorganic exam and the 98th percentile for the Instrumental Analysis exam). Thus, we believe it is important to demonstrate to our students, through an experiment based upon GSU student research published in Inorganic Chemistry, that they and their peers are competitive with traditional students from more prestigious programs.

Finally, with respect to the core set of NMR instruction that the proposed development plan will provide to our students, CHEM 450 will provide the capstone NMR experience. To reiterate, students in CHEM 450 will prepare and characterize previously unreported compounds; compounds which are similar to those our students have already prepared. Students will then have to integrate their knowledge of NMR, from their previous courses, in order to characterize their new compounds to the instructor’s satisfaction (the instructor acts as a journal referee or editor).

We foresee many other applications for the proposed instrument beyond those proposed above. For example, the instrument will replace the current or recently functioning continuous wave instruments in all of their applications (vide supra). Additional applications will include, in the GSU physical chemistry lab course (CHEM 369), its use to determine the activation energy for cyclopentadienyl rotation in n-butylferrocene and in the GSU environmental chemistry lab course (CHEM 506), FT-NMR will be used to characterize environmental pollutants extracted from various tissues of Lake Michigan fish. In the CHEM 369 experiment, based upon a report by Mann et al., 13C relaxation and nuclear Overhauser enhancement measurments will be made on n-butylferrocene, at several different temperatures.12 From these measurements, and an appropriate treatment of the data, the students will determine the activation energy for cyclopentadienyl rotation. In the CHEM 506 experiment, students will extract and concentrate pollutants from various tissues (edible and nonedible) within Lake Michigan fish. Students currently analyze the extracts by gas chromatography. FT-NMR will allow for a better qualitative analysis of the extracts. While teaching NMR spectroscopy is not a specific goal for either experiment (the goals are to teach students about activation energies, in an interesting fashion, and to teach students common techniques for the isolation and identification of environmental pollutants from organisms), both experiments will allow students to integrate the more fundamental and important aspects of FT-NMR spectroscopy that they will have learned in the year-long organic sequence and in instrumental analysis.

The presence of a local FT-NMR will also be of great value to ongoing student research projects. Ongoing GSU student research includes: the decarbonylation of aldehydes and concomitant formation of rhenium carbonyl complexes, a kinetics determination for the transformation of ReH7(PPh3)2 into Re2H8(PPh3)4, characterization of photo-oxidation products of fullerenes, investigation of photo-induced protein coupling reactions, investigation of the synthesis and efficacy of potential pesticides, and the synthesis and characterization of mucon aldehydes. These ongoing research projects, centered around faculty interests, range from attempts to develop homogeneous models for Fischer Tropsch synthesis to an investigation of mechanisms for cataract formation to the development of new carbamate-type pesticides to the synthesis and characterization of prospective intermediates that may be involved in the formation of tropospheric ozone. It generally takes a long time for these projects to reach completion. The lack of local access to FT-NMR contributes to the long time required to complete these projects. It seems likely that local access to FT-NMR will decrease the time required to complete such projects and, simultaneously, improve the students’ research experiences. Several recently completed projects would have benefited from routine access to FT-NMR spectroscopy (Appendix d). Currently, GSU faculty have arrangements with Purdue University and with Chicago State University for help with research samples that require high field, variable temperature, or multinuclear NMR.

 

 

 

Equipment

 

A detailed description of the equipment proposed for this development and a justification of why each piece is necessary is included in the budget justification section of this proposal, which immediately follows the budget page of this proposal. Towards the goal of ensuring a long lifetime for the proposed instrument, GSU will purchase a service contract for the instrument. GSU will assign faculty PQP CUEs (contact hour equivalencies) for maintenance (cryogens etc.) of the FT-NMR and for coordination of regional use. GSU will also dedicate an appropriate (vibration-free, appropriate utilities, isolated from elevators, etc.) 15’ x 12’ room to hold the FT-NMR. To ensure prompt access to the FT-NMR at remote sites, a dedicated, WWW browser-equipped, PC will be established at each remote site. Both USF and SSC will dedicate an existing PC to on-campus student operation of the regional FT-NMR.

 

 

 

Faculty Expertise

 

 

 

Moehring has nine publications describing the synthesis and characterization of rhenium polyhydride complexes. FT-NMR spectroscopy was an important tool for all of these publications. Kumar has used solution NMR spectroscopy extensively, since 1980, for the characterization of a variety of organic compounds and solid state FT-NMR for the characterization of cellulose derivatives. Diab and Selbka have many years of experience working with and teaching students, hands-on, 1H NMR spectroscopy. Park, a computer science professor, has training with NMR spectroscopy, as a B.S. chemistry graduate, but more importantly she has significant experience in interfacing instruments, at Argonne National Labs, to PC and Silicon Graphics work stations. Addison has decades of research experience with 1H NMR and has undergone training with FT-NMR. D’Arcy has years of experience with 1H NMR.

 

 

 

Dissemination and Evaluation

 

 

 

One appropriate forum for dissemination of results will be the regional 2YC3 symposium that will be hosted by SSC in September of 1999. The symposium, dedicated to issues related to chemistry education in two year colleges is sponsored by the ACS Division of Chemical Education. Additionally, the ACS provides symposia related to NSF-CCLI proposals, at meetings of the Society. We plan to participate in such symposia and discuss the results of this proposal. Additionally, The Journal of Chemical Education regularly publishes items about improvements to undergraduate chemistry teaching labs. Efforts will be undertaken to publish in the Journal.

The most important forum for dissemination and evaluation of our results, however, will be through SMRHEC. Upon successful use of the instrument, via the WWW, GSU will host a meeting of SMRHEC devoted to a demonstration of this method for sharing resources. Interested faculty from all SMRHEC institutions will be encouraged to learn about and use this regional resource. A regional FT-NMR users group will be established along with a list-serve dedicated to this group (the list-serve will facilitate instrument scheduling, discussion and evaluation of experiments and student outcomes, and trouble-shooting). Annual meetings of the users group will be held. These meetings will provide a forum for curriculum development and evaluation of student outcomes, will facilitate the transfer of curricular materials between institutions, will provide a forum for the presentation of student research, and will allow for discussions with invited speakers who are involved with advanced applications of FT-NMR. Such faculty development activities should ensure that users receive maximum benefit from the proposed regional WWW-based FT-NMR spectrometer.

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