Industry no longer wastes expensive labour time on routine & repetitive chemical analyses. Computers are now more common in the modern laboratory as the, once ubiquitous test tube racks & Bunsen burners! In Lochgelly High School, the Senior Management Team decided that it was vital to give our pupils the opportunity to use such apparatus as an integral part of their studies at both Standard Grade and Higher/AH Chemistry level. With this in mind, funding was acquired to purchase specialised electrodes and associated analytical hardware which could be interfaced with the PC's already in each subject area.

We wouldn't expect any commercial package to be used within the classroom without extensive prior testing to evaluate its potential effectiveness. Once Lochgelly High School had sourced and purchased the necessary hard/software, we identified where in the chemistry curriculum it could be used and altered the software programming to make it more 'pupil-friendly'. The adapted package was then trialled with several classes with great success and it now stands as a dedicated part of the chemistry coursework.

I'm sure that you remember science experiments from your own school days - 20 minutes setting up apparatus & recording information and then the following three lessons labouriously analysing the results! Today's chemistry syllabus does not allow time for such mathematical manipulation!

However, our data capture and analysis software lets our chemistry pupils take a massive range of results (enhancing accuracy); the PC instantly analyses these results and will present them in any tabular or graphical format. This saves the pupil a great deal of time and, more importantly, allows them to gain competence in handling computer interface equipment that they will encounter in college/university or industrial laboratories.

Although I was familiar with installing & applying the hard/software, it was essential to train other members of the science team to ensure that they were equally competent & confident in using this equipment. Although it took a great deal of time to train key staff, this was time well spent - staff could see the versatility of the apparatus and could integrate it into other subject areas. Our data projector was also employed to provide powerpoint summaries of key lesson objectives and to display and analyse results in front of the entire class!

A detailed list of the equipment needed for chemistry interfacing can be found at the djb microtech wesite : http://www.djb.co.uk