How do you teach students to use scientific instrumentation when a pandemic forces classes online and the students have no access to the usual lab or analytic equipment? Adjunct Professor Bruce Kahn found a creative solution this spring while teaching an experimental techniques class.
Kahn created kits for the 26 students in his class to build their own modular instruments so they could conduct experiments at home and in the field. The kits contained about $10 of materials including 3D-printed parts, LEDs, color filters, household chemicals, pipettes, and electrical components.
He received help designing the instrument over the winter from alumnus David Olney ’13 (chemical engineering). Lab Manager Michael Buffalin helped him print the parts at the Construct makerspace, and Kahn had support from the School of Chemistry and Materials Science faculty including Professor…
