Virtual Lab Experiment.
Students will be given the challenge of designing an experimental pathway to isolate and quantify the amount of analyte in two (perhaps more) complex mixtures in order to test a scientific hypothesis. See the Virtual Lab Doc under Course Resources. Virtual Lab Doc under Course Resources. – Alternative Formats
The student plays the role of experimenter to build the experiment from the ground up. This is a thought experiment. The goal is to learn how to mentally work through the steps in designing a useful experiment, well before any physical work is done. The benefits of thinking ahead include saving the experimenter time and energy, and staying within the budget of the laboratory. The goal is to learn how to:
1) design a relevant experiment,
2) describe in a stepwise manner a detailed path to implement the experiment with some of the listed reagents, methods and equipment, and
3) describe the expected appearance of the results (data) that would justify the non-null conclusion. A one page background (with at least 3 references) to put this experiment into context is also required.
