Project Information. Proposal Endorsement Signatures

Transcription

1 FY2008 Learning Technologies Grants Proposal (COVER PAGE) Project Information Designing a Virtual Food Analysis Laboratory with Digital Technologies Project Title Dr. Ronald B. Pegg, Assistant Professor & Dr. Robert L. Shewfelt, Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor Project Director Food Science & Technology Requesting Department $10,154 $0 Amount Requested Year 1 Amount Requested Year 2 Project Director s Signature Proposal Endorsement Signatures Department Head Dean Proposal Abstract (100-word maximum) Honors & graduate students enrolled in Instrumental Methods of Food Analysis will participate in teams to design a virtual laboratory with digital technologies. Students will prepare a script, use video & computer technologies, as well as tape & edit a laboratory session using analytical instrumentation while highlighting key steps one has to follow, difficulties one might experience, and tricks necessary to resolve analytical problems. A professional-looking DVD will result. It will be viewed by the class and evaluated. In successive years, new DVDs demonstrating the operation of additional analytical instrumentation will be developed, thereby creating a library/collection of virtual laboratories. 1

2 Whenever possible, students who have graduated from our department and gone on to either industry or academia have been interviewed by our program s undergraduate co-coordinator. This is usually done within the first two years of graduation. Feedback from these interviews has revealed that one of the areas lacking in the Food Science program has been hands-on training with instrumentation necessary for the analysis of food. Previous efforts in FDST 4080/6080: Instrumental Methods of Food Analysis were directed towards demonstration-type labs. Clearly, this has not met the students needs, particularly those who have chosen a path with industry. Since joining the Department of Food Science & Technology last year, I ve (i.e., RB Pegg) begun restructuring the learning outcomes and format of FDST 4080/6080 & 4080L/6080L. The project described below is designed to help rectify this deficit in our academic unit and to enhance the educational experience of the students taking this course. Section I. Project Description This project proposes to develop what I call a virtual laboratory as part of FDST 4080/6080: Instrumental Methods of Food Analysis in the Department of Food Science & Technology. The project will involve marrying modern computer and audio/video technologies with instructional operation of a selected piece of analytical instrumentation (e.g., high-pressure liquid chromatograph [HPLC], gas chromatograph [GC], ultraviolet-visible [UV-vis] diode array spectrophotometer) used to analyze food or constituents therefrom. The product from the effort will be an instructional DVD. Honors and graduate students in FDST 4080 and FDST 6080, respectively, will participate in teams to design a virtual laboratory appropriate for the analysis of a food product or constituent therefrom. The food product to be tested can be a traditional one or a novel functional food, which has been formulated to provide health benefits beyond that of basic nutrition. An agreement on the appropriate laboratory exercise and analytical instrumentation needed for the lab will be arrived at from discussions with the course instructor (i.e., RB Pegg). Throughout the semester, the teams of students will first need to prepare a script outlining the analysis they want to undertake. Issues of concern will include how to perform the sample workup steps (e.g. extractions, clean-up, derivatization of the food product), how to prepare the instrumentation for the analysis in question, how to deliver the sample to the instrument in a quantitative manner, how to operate the software associated with the instrument, how to output the data, how to calculate quantitative values from the output, and finally how to interpret the findings and draw conclusions from the results. The script will be reviewed by the instructor and teaching assistant for the course and then returned to the teams with suggestions for improvement. The next step in the process is for the teams to perform the actual experiments to develop a familiarity and confidence with the analysis in question. When all of the fine details have been worked out, the experiment will be repeated and videotaped by the students. Each member of the team will be required to play an active role both in front of and behind the digital camera. Once filming is complete, the task of editing the project and inserting voiceovers will begin. This will likely be the most challenging task and will involve the students to work with a Macintosh computer and video/audio production software. Human resources are available in the Department of Food Science & Technology to assist students with the education of the software and editing functions of this technology. The teams will need to ensure that during editing of the laboratory session key steps one has to follow, difficulties one might experience in the analysis, 2

3 and tricks employed to resolve any problems are highlighted. Detailed chemistry and calculations may need to be included. A segment using a blackboard and chalk to outline calculations may serve as means for this. In the end, the final product will be professionallooking with a minimum length of 20 min. At the end of the term, the videos/dvd prepared by each team will be presented via a computer system and viewed by the entire class (i.e., nonhonors students, honors students & graduate students) and invited guests to the class. All students, except those who prepared the particular video in question, and guests will evaluate the final product by completing a standardized evaluation form. Evaluations will be turned into the instructor for review before a final grade is given for this class project. No piece of analytical equipment should be used more than once for a project until a collection of DVDs has been generated. In other words, if teams A and B in 2008 prepare DVDs concerning an analysis using a GC and HPLC, respectively, then teams C and D in 2009 cannot select these pieces of equipment. Instead they might choice to perform an experiment using the microplate reader with photochemiluminescence capability or electrophoresis set-up for protein measurements. Thus, the resultant products (i.e., the collection or library) developed by students taking FDST 4080 & FDST 6080 throughout the consecutive years will constitute the virtual laboratory. Presently, there are 8 pieces of analytical equipment most are new available in Dr. Pegg s lab, which are commonly used in Food Analysis applications. Within the Department of Food Science & Technology, there are 2 other pieces of instrumentation that would be appropriate for the virtual laboratory project. Nevertheless, it is important to keep in mind that there are a wealth of applications employing GC and HPLC systems using various columns and detector systems. So, the development of the library in some respects can be considered endless. Don t companies already have DVDs available illustrating the operation of analytical equipment? This is true, but only to some degree. Various analytical equipment manufacturers now have short computer video presentations on selected aspects of their equipment lines. As an example, there is a 3-min video presentation available from Agilent Technologies on their webpage pertaining to the operation of the 8453A UV-vis diode array spectrophotometer. The computer presentation explains how light from either a tungsten or deuterium source passes through the instrument and sample being analyzed. The presentation is very slick and offers a great teaching tool to give some background specifics on the machine. Unfortunately, no details are provided for the analysis of a specific product, for how the sample should be worked up before inserting it in the spectrophotometer, for how the data will be generated, for how the data should be analyzed relative to a standard curve, for how that standard curve should be prepared, etc. The lack of having instructional videos analyzing a specific product with this or other instrumentation is where the strength of the proposed virtual laboratory project lies. Recently Insight Media (New York, NY) had a mail-out of their DVDs & Videos for Agriculture. This included the disciplines of Agricultural Economics, Sociology of Food, Animal Science, Veterinary Medicine, Horticulture Science, Crop Science, Soil Science, and Agricultural Biotechnology. Under the discipline of Food Science, there were no offerings in any form pertaining to Food Analysis. What are the benefits available to students from the virtual laboratory? The concept of marrying computer technology and videotaping of a laboratory session should be more appealing to students than the traditional lecture and demonstration of analytical instrumentation by the laboratory instructor. Clearly, a better educational experience will be 3

4 offered to the students, as it demands them to have a more hands-on approach with both the instrumentation and the computer/av technologies necessary to prepare the resultant DVD. Through videotaping the laboratory session, the students will gain a better appreciation and understanding of the fine details necessary to conduct analytical chemistry and to properly utilize the instrumentation needed for the analysis. The students will have to struggle to work out the tricks of the assay and then to deliver this information to the viewer of the DVD. The resultant DVD from the teams/students efforts will be used as a teaching tool for future students taking FDST 4080/6080: Instrumental Methods of Food Analysis. In this manner, the new batch of students can watch a DVD on their home personal computer before their laboratory session. By watching their predecessors in FDST 4080/6080 undertake an experiment, the new students should gain a more solid background in understanding the experiment than that afforded by traditional lecture and laboratory demonstration. Furthermore even when the laboratory session is complete, the students can go back to review the DVD to determine whether or not they have followed the steps of the analysis in the correct fashion. This will reinforce the basics with regard to the instrumentation in question, the development of good laboratory practices (GLPs), and the steps mandatory for a proper analysis. Unlike traditional lectures which are not taped, the students can review the DVDs at any time. FDST 4080/6080: Instrumental Methods of Food Analysis is a course taught yearly in the Spring term. During its first offering in January 2007 under the direction of a new instructor (i.e., myself), 9 undergraduate (with one honors student) and 4 graduate students enrolled in the course. Our department, however, is growing in size. In the academic year, there are 65 undergraduates and slightly more than 80 graduate students. As a conservative estimate, it is expected that the number of students to register for FDST 4080/6080 will double in size. Undergraduates in the honors program and graduate students will benefit most from the project described above. Although not developing the virtual laboratory, non-honors undergraduates in the course will benefit from viewing the DVDs resulting from the participants in the project. Section II. Budget Apropos the total budget of $12,154: the technology costs include the Macintosh computer, video equipment, audio production equipment, and the required audio/video editing software. In this proposal, all expenses are equipment related. I am requesting $10,154 from the Learning Technologies Grant for only one year. The remaining $2,000 to cover the balance will come from funds awarded to me as a successful candidate of the Lilly Teaching Fellow Program. For the Lilly Teaching Fellow Program, the instructional project I chose to work on is the virtual laboratory described above. Hence, if funding is awarded from the Learning Technologies Grant Program, it will be used to enhance the project. My faculty mentor in this endeavor is Dr. Shewfelt, a Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor. If unsuccessful in this request, the project will continue but in a different format. The computer and audio/visual equipment will need to be borrowed and/or rented, since I have no existing equipment of this type. This will make delivering the project to the students in FDST 4080/6080 more challenging and will not afford the continuity of developing the virtual laboratory, as there is no guarantee of funds in future years. 4

5 Item Quantity Total Cost Apple Macintosh Pro Processor two 3.0 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon; Memory 4 x 1GB; Hard Drive 250 GB GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s; Graphics - 3 x NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB; Display Apple Cinema HD Display (23 flat panel); Optical Drive two 16x Super Drives with double-layer support (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW); Wireless Bluetooth 2.0+EDR & AirPort Extreme; Apple Keyboard and Mighty Mouse; Mac OS X US English; and AppleCare Protection Plan for Mac Pro Requested from LTG Provided by Other Sources 1 $5,951 $5,951 0 Canon XH-A1 3CCD HDV Camcorder, 1080i, 16:9, 20x Lens, 24f Mode, includes Battery Pack, Wide Angle Lens, Camcorder Bag, 6 Digital Master MiniDV Video Cassettes, and 4-Year Extended Warranty Bogen / Manfrotto 351MVB2 Aluminum Video Tripod Kit with 75mm Half Bowl and 3460 (503) Pro Head, Mid-Level Spreader, Rubber Shoes & Padded case 1 $4,000 $2,000 $2,000* 1 $520 $520 0 DVM-63HD 63 Mini DV HD Video Cassette (Set of 3) 2 $60 $60 0 B&H Photo Podcasting Package for Mac OS X 1 $259 $259 0 Video & Audio Production Suite Final Cut Studio 2 1 $1,299 $1,299 0 FireWire 6-pin to 6-pin DV Cable 14 ft 1 $25 $25 0 Maxwell DVD-RW 4.7 GB Rewritable DVD Discs (Spindle pack of 15) 2 $40 $40 0 Lilly Fellow ( ) Project money* TOTALS $12,154 $10,154 $2,000 5

6 Project Timeline: As outlined in the call for proposals, awards will be announced and funds released shortly after December 1, The timeline proposed below was development with this in mind. Date (mm/yy) Objective Person Responsible 12/07 Begin putting together quotes and purchase orders for acquiring the necessary equipment 1/08 Outline and begin the virtual laboratory project to the undergraduate (honors) and graduate students in FDST 4080/6080 2/08 3/08 Continue working with the teams on the development of the virtual laboratory with particular emphasis on the computer/av technologies 4/08 Watch and evaluate the finished DVDs by the students Dr. RB Pegg Dr. RB Pegg & Teaching Assistant for the course Dr. RB Pegg, Teaching Assistant, and our department s computer expert Dr RB Pegg Dr RL Shewfelt FDST 4080/6080 class Invited guests Section III. Learning Outcomes: Upon successful completion of this project, the students should have the ability to identify analytical instrumentation employed in food analysis; select the appropriate instrumental procedure and course of action for a food analysis problem; describe the basic principles underlying analytical techniques associated with food analysis; describe the theory and operation of key components of analytical instrumentation utilized in food analysis; demonstrate practical proficiency in a food analysis laboratory; solve mathematical problems involved in instrumental techniques used in food analysis; interpret the statistically-analyzed data generated by the instrumentation; develop a concise laboratory DVD that communicates key information about the experiment to the viewer; and develop computer and audio/visual editing skills. Section IV. Support Plan As described in the proposal itself, this will be a yearly on-going project (i.e., every Spring semester) even if successfully funded by LTG in The aim is to develop a virtual laboratory library/collection of experiments using instrumentation associated with food analysis. 6

7 Being a tenure-track faculty member in the Department of Food Science & Technology, I (RB Pegg) will continue delivering this course because it is a core competency determined by the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) in the discipline of Food Science. Moreover, the analytical instrumentation is available in both the FDST 4080/6080L laboratory and my personal research lab. 7