Chemistry Labs May Look Different During Remote Instruction, but Community Remains Elemental

通常，这并不难尼克母鹿在Wellesley的有机化学实验室 - 只需寻找他的明亮，扎染的实验室外套，或者聆听班级进行实验的背景下在背景中播放的Fleetwood Mac和其他学生策划选择的声音。

当学院由于Covid-19大流行，Doe，化学实验室的高级教练而搬到远程教学时，他的化学部门的同事必须提出新的方式来开展实验室，创造现实世界的情景，并保持他们的贴心社区。

Doe试图在他的远程实验室中培养连接的联系，从他的YouTube频道开始讲座，“Orgoland in cyberSPACE,” with quirky music, puns, and fun connections to the material he’s presenting. As his students are now spread all over the world, he has created study groups for those in similar time zones, and like many other faculty members, he is holding virtual office hours during a range of time frames. In the absence of traditional, hands-on experiments, Doe has been providing specific data from past labs so that “students will still get a taste of real-world science, filled with all the imperfections and pitfalls that are inherent in performing lab experiments.”

特别是遥感对化学课程的挑战构成了一个明显的挑战。“几乎所有的课程都有一个实验室组成部分，而且这些是整体课程经验的一个组成部分，”Don Elmore，化学和部门教授。

“当然，在实验室工作的一个方面正在制定一系列技术技能，其中一些技术技能不是在线格式的，”Elmore继续。“但是，我们通过实验室经验解决的许多主要学习目标涉及如何制定研究问题，提出了一种解决该方法的实验方法来解决该方法，并考虑适当的故障排除或基于这些解释的下一步。我们仍然可以通过调整的我们的实验室经验推出这些目标。“

在他们介绍化学课程的实验室中，教练蒙娜大厅，Terianna蜡，林葛康队在三队中分组了学生。团队成员从一周到一周划线，质量控制分析师和经理旋转其角色 - 以重建课堂和物理实验室设置的协同环境。

在集成的生物物理化学先进的劳动atory, students spent the first part of the semester developing independent projects and experiments that they planned to work on during the second part, which they will not be able to do remotely.

“我们一直在努力考虑维持对我们非常重要的社区感，继续一些传统和引入其他人的方式。”

Don Elmore, professor of chemistry

Course instructor伊丽莎白奥克斯has created an alternative plan to emphasize the main goals of the course: to really understand experimental design, and to frame and clearly communicate research questions. To that end, students are making instructional videos about either their original proposed projects or the diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19.

Mathew Tantama.化学助理教授开发了一系列连接概念的一系列视频讲座，他在他的生物化学课上向冠状病毒以及它如何在人体内运作。他的病毒视频与他最初计划覆盖的每周主题联系，包括使用课程的酶模块对病毒蛋白酶的含量配对。本周，他的视频讲座是关于Covid-19测试的科学，伴随着他的学生对核酸的检查。

Elmore表示，除了重塑实验室和课程外，“我们实际上一直试图考虑维持对我们非常重要的社区感，继续有一些传统和介绍少数人的方式。”

Last week, for example, the department introduced a weekly chemistry puzzle for students; the winner, chosen at random from among participants, receives a beaker mug. For the first puzzle, students had to use their knowledge of the periodic table to solve this riddle: Fame is fleeting, obscurity is forever.

4月17日，该部门将为介绍和有机化学学生开展Zoom奖励仪式，以认识到这些课程的特殊学生，以及有关Wellesley的化学系和化学历史的问题。

也许今年之后的新传统将是马客讲师。这Boston Globerecently wrote about a visitor to chemistry professor克里斯·阿鲁曼亚塔亚克姆’s Chemistry of the Heavens class: Emma Miller ’20’s mustang, Story. Arumainayagam asked Miller if she would bring her horse to class, saying it would be “the pinnacle of his 29-year career at Wellesley College.” Story made his chemistry community debut from Miller’s Riverton, Wyo., garage. Miller told the Globe that “Everyone loved it…It was the first time I saw some of my classmates smile.”