Studio Chemistry

This project is located in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, California. Listed below, you will find various links to this experiment in teaching and learning. Should you have any questions, feel free to contact gneff@calpoly.edu, the project director.

In 1994 we set out to revise the scope, content and pedagogy for one of our existing general chemistry course sequences, Chemistry 124 and 125 (General Chemistry for the Engineering Disciplines). As we progressed in introducing solid state concepts and technology into the courses, the project evolved into an integrated format, that is, a physical space wherein laboratory and lecture are coalesced into a total learning environment. This means that rather than the 3 hours lecture and 3-hour lab mode which presents a chronological and frequently instructional disconnect between lecture and lab, the students spend those entire 6 hours in the same room with the same instructor and 1-2 undergraduate aides. The hypothesis was that a technologically and topically current pedagogy is equal, if not superior, to the conventional lecture-laboratory mode in general chemistry. The facility also presents a prototype for the design of modern teaching facilities that was incorporated into the Warren J Baker Center for Science and Mathematics opened in September 2013.