Designing a Science Lab for an Upper Level Class

Katelyn Billings '10, Chemistry/Mathematics double major and
Dr. Bret Findley, Assistant Professor of Chemistry

Katelyn Billings likes to keep busy. She’s a varsity softball player, a double major in chemistry and mathematics, a volunteer with the MOVE program (Mobilization of Volunteer Efforts). And now she has been awarded a NASA grant to work full-time in a chemistry lab devising a new pedagogical approach to a lab procedure for an upper level Saint Michael’s physical chemistry course.

Working with Dr. Bret Findley, assistant professor of chemistry, Billings devised a research project titled “Solvatochromism and Photo-Induced Intramolecular Electron Transfer.” The proposal earned Billings a $3,500 summer research grant from NASA–Vermont Space Grant Consortium, which also provides her $750 for equipment, and $1,500 for the advising professor, Dr. Findley. Additional funds of $1,500 are provided for the two researchers to travel to a NASA location near Washington, D.C., to present the results of their project.

Using her research, Billings will be designing a physical chemistry lab to teach students about how important solvents are in changing the energetic chemical environment. In addition to providing the information to create the lab, the project examines the polarity of solvents, which can provide a range of information about various materials. The research focuses particularly on such substances as fluorescence and the changes in its wave length depending on the surrounding environment. This has relevance in understanding how molecules behave in electron transfer in any number of chemical activities, such as photosynthesis or in solar cells and photovoltaic cells.

“I really like the lab environment,” said Billings. “I like working with chemicals and trying to figure stuff out,” she said. She and her adviser, Dr. Findley hope to publish the results of the project in The Journal of Chemical Education.