What is Small-Scale Chemistry?

Small-Scale Chemistry is an innovative, holistic, digital, user-friendly, transparent, quantitative, and cutting edge approach to engage students in experimental chemistry. It provides a solution to most of the problems associated with laboratory instruction. Small-Scale Chemistry is the outcome of over 30 years of research and testing and has been used for 15 years in the first year chemistry program (over 3,000 students each year) at Colorado State University and other institutions such as Pennsylvania State University and Oregon State University. Small-Scale Chemistry involves the use of non-traditional methods, apparatus, and techniques that have been developed in microbiology, molecular biology, and nano-technology research. The thrust of this research has been to obtain and analyze the maximum amount of information, in the simplest way, at the lowest cost, safely.

Small-Scale Chemistry Philosophy

Click to view Quicktime™ movie (8 MB)

The essential features of Small-Scale Chemistry are:

• A scaling down of chemical reagents to volumes and masses one thousand times smaller than those used in traditional labs.
• A shift from glassware to modern polymer or plastic materials in transfer, storage and reaction devices.
• The use of multi-sample observational tools which allow rapid, intuitive preparation, variation and comparison of chemical systems in all phases: gases, liquids and solids.

All of the equipment for Small-Scale Chemistry is extremely inexpensive as it is designed for single use and disposal, but the student can re-use it. A complete set of apparatus costs under $10 and is available through common distributors of scientific material.

Well trays and microliter burets

(2.6 MB)