Making Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Resonate with Students: Integrating NMR into the Undergraduate Curriculum

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is a quantum technology that serves as a crucial analytic and diagnostic tool in fundamental and applied science industries and promises to play an important role in the 21st-century STEM workforce. The recent development of inexpensive benchtop NMR spectrometers offers unique opportunities for undergraduate institutions to give their students relevant research skills with this essential technique and provide a more intuitive introduction to the quantum realm. Through the support of an NSF-IUSE grant, we have established an interdisciplinary and cross-institutional team to develop, assess, and disseminate curricular material that integrates NMR into all levels of the undergraduate science curriculum. These materials consist of interactive modules with associated instructional guides and online resources that introduce the topics without expectations of prior college-level science or math courses. Our research shows that students using our modules not only successfully master the NMR content, they also: (1) spend over four times as much time sense-making using our modules as in a traditional lecture course, (2) demonstrate positive scientific identity shifts, and (3) make statistically significant gains in learning attitudes about science and self-assessed research skills. If you or any faculty colleagues may be interested in implementing any of our materials, please scan the QR code on the poster for the contact form.