Laboratory of Coming to Carolina Chemistry... Over the past 20 years, Morehead Labs has seen tremendous progress in instructional innovation. Since the building first opened in 1986, thousands of students have walked through its doors and benefited from the best Carolina Chemistry has to offer in undergraduate laboratory education. Today, more than 5,000 students from across the university are enrolled in undergraduate chemistry lab courses annually.
The Lab of the Future represents our vision for next generation undergraduate chemistry research pedagogy at UNC Chapel Hill... Lab courses are being created and redesigned to foster collaboration among our students. Coursebased Undergraduate Research Experiences, CUREs, are a new platform that enable students to design experiments and learn skills to tackle cutting-edge research questions. This is real research, not step-by-step procedures in lab manuals that have been performed by thousands of students before. Besides answering novel questions, a CURE has four other characteristics: 1, there are chances for students to fail and try again; 2, students take ownership of their project; 3, there is meaningful collaboration with peers; and 4, students communicate their findings outside the classroom.
20 | CHEMISTRY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
Effective twenty-first century teaching requires updated facilities. Through $1M support from the College of Arts & Sciences, the Lab of the Future is being designed to align with the learning and teaching environment of today’s chemistry labs. Key features include: • Collaboration stations that accommodate student groups • Maximized sight lines throughout the space • Ventilation stations for each student pair designed to accommodate a digital notebook • Windows between the classroom and the corridor to maximize natural light and make chemistry more accessible, not something that is hidden away • 90” multimedia display for instructor use • 70” multimedia displays around the perimeter for student collaboration • Removable digital tablet control panel in wall with docking station • Flexible exhaust capabilities for future instrumentation The Lab of the Future represents our vision for next generation undergraduate chemistry research pedagogy at UNC Chapel Hill. Plans are still in early stages, but the path forward is one we cannot walk alone. The support of our alumni and friends will be critical to success and we look forward to working together to maintain UNC Chemistry’s national leadership in undergraduate chemistry education.
| CHEM.UNC.EDU
