SRP

Summer Research Program (SRP)

"The great tragedy of science - the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact." - Quoted by Friedrich Wohler (1800-1882) upon his accidental synthesis of urea in 1828. 

Thank God, for ugly facts .... without them the history of organic chemistry would not be the same.

The BEST summer research program (SRP) provides hands-on work experiences in discovering and creating new products and processes in organic chemistry. Typically, the program involves a minimum of forty(40) hours a week for eight(8) to ten(10) weeks. BEST summer apprentices are primarily undergraduate and high school students from a variety of majors and with varying interests and career goals.

High school students and non-chemistry majors in the BEST summer research program are given a two week orientation. Within the initial two weeks of the ten week BEST summer program all apprentices learn basic chemical stoichiometric calculations, use and understand organic chemical formulas and representations, use ChemDraw,  learn how to maintain a lab notebook, and operate IR, NMR, UV-Vis and Raman instruments.

The task specific learning approach utilized in the BEST summer program has allowed us to include students with low science backgrounds and skills: high school students including Grade 10, non-science college majors, and non-chemistry majors. In addition, participants are actively involved in weekly research group meeting discussions and a final project report must be submitted before final payment.

The fact that the knowledge and skills taught are immediately needed in order to do a job and get paid answers the perennial student questions: ‘What am I learning this for?’ Why do I need to know this? The immediate ‘economic incentive’ for learning gets most students full attention right away. It also provides accountability and consequences into the process. In other words, like at any other job, apprentices can get fired and have been!