We aim to build on the philosophy, methods and experiences of a number of UK Chemistry departments to embed activities that will support the development of student laboratory skills before and after embarking on our undergraduate chemistry courses. We will achieve this by a holistic web/VLEbased approach that will make use of bespoke instructional videos, pre- and post-laboratory exercises, simulations and virtual experiments. Support for this project will allow us to build best practice into an existing pilot project and significantly extend it to provide coverage of all areas of introductory practical chemistry. Funding will principally support the production of course-specific materials through undergraduate summer projects. Additionally, we will host a half-day meeting in York where we will be able to bring together representatives from established projects in Bristol and Southampton. As a result, we will not only be able to build up an inventory of support materials specific to our own course but we will be able to draw directly upon the experiences of established practitioners in order to make the best use of these resources and identify opportunities to exploit existing resources developed under previous initiatives.

to demystify and provide an introduction to practical work typical of 1st year university chemistry courses for those students considering embarking, or about to embark, on such further study;

to support the development of practical skills in the 1st year of our course by using a holistic web/VLE-based approach similar to those employed in other departments that brings together elements such as instructional video, animations and simulations, pre- and postlaboratory exercises, virtual experiments and electronic lab report submission;

to build a new philosophy for enhancing laboratory work throughout future years of the course.

to host a half-day meeting to bring together key external collaborators (as identified in this proposal) and those members of this Department who have specific involvement in Year 1 laboratory courses to share the key best practice established elsewhere and provoke debate on the opportunities to continue to embed similar approaches in York; (we would also advertise this meeting more widely to include other York HE STEM disciplines and NE region HE chemistry departments so that the best practice offered by our collaborators could be shared more widely within the sector);

• to identify, with guidance from our collaborators, those materials and methods that can be adapted directly to enhance practical course delivery in York and implement these changes in consultation with our partners;

• to adapt materials, with guidance from our collaborators, to allow schools to get meaningful access to and experience of undergraduate practical chemistry;

• to determine, through Year 1 practical course organisers, what additional resources/materials are needed to support particular Year 1 experiments within the scheme of enhanced practical course delivery;

• to recruit undergraduate students onto a total of 1200 student-hours of summer project work to create instructional video clips to cover specific techniques involved in practical work in Year 1 analytical and physical chemistry;

• to review, refine and supplement, through undergraduate summer project  work, video material already generated under a pilot project addressing techniques in Year 1 synthetic chemistry;

• to collaborate with course organisers to generate pre- and post-laboratory exercises that will reinforce the development of practical skills in the laboratory;

• to collaborate with course organisers to generate pre- and post-laboratory exercises that will reinforce the development of higher order practical skills such as those associated with experimental design, Good Laboratory Practice, and data handling and analysis.

a resource of generic and specific instructional video clips, pre- and postlab exercises and related materials to support the Year 1 lab courses;

a resource of materials that can be used to engage with new undergraduates prior to their arrival at university to provide an introduction to the techniques, challenges and rewards of laboratory work that will be made available through our ‘transition’ VLE site;

a resource of materials that can be accessed by schools to provide a video/virtual ‘walk through’ a typical undergraduate experiment, illustrating key techniques and providing sample data and spectra that can be discussed in the school context;

a paradigm change in the delivery and support of laboratory work that will establish the momentum to enhance further years of the course in a similar fashion.