Using Pictograms to Depict Analytical Techniques in an Instrumental Analysis Course (Journal Article)

***______{For Hard Copy, Please visit Library.}________***

Abstract: Students in a typical instrumental analysis course may learn more than 30 analytical techniques. There are more than 150 components associated with the instrumentation that they learn. To help students organize this large amount of information, we classified these components into four categories: sources, samples, discriminators, and detectors. In this work, color-coded pictograms are used to help students identify components associated with a particular instrumental technique. For example, a UV–visible spectrophotometer can be depicted by using four color-coded pictograms. Pictograms were created for instrumentation on each of the following topics: spectroscopy, electrochemistry, chromatography, elemental analysis, surface analysis, and thermal analysis. Methods to incorporate these pictograms into the instrumental analysis course and assess their effectiveness are provided.