Teaching Philosophy of Chemistry 345

• It's not how many things you teach, it's how you teach the many (or preferably, fewer) things.
• If you value what you teach, evaluate what you value.
• Student's learn best by doing things, not by listening to other's tell them how to do them.

Class Lab Philosophy:  Faster is Slower

What's the Difference Between Bioanalytical Chemistry and Biochemical Techniques?

The main focus of many biochemical techniques classes is to teach students how to do certain techniques like run columns, pour gels, or use a centrifuge. With the rapid pace of analytical instrumentation development, many lab techniques are quickly becoming out of date or superseded by commercial kits. Though a techniques class can be very beneficial, especially to a student starting a research project, the skills are not analytical skills per se. In a bioanalytical chemistry class, students should learn:

• how to analyze the quality of their data using appropriate statistical techniques
• why to insure their equipment is calibrated (and how to calibrate a few basic pieces like micropipets)
• how to design experiments properly
• the physical chemical basis of separations
• how diffusion relates to separations and analyses
• how spectroscopic instrumentation works
• the limitations of analytical methods
• an introduction to the basics of electrochemistry (like pH meters).