Visit the Active Learning Materials site to learn about Environmental Analysis of Lake Nakuru Flamingos.

Lake Nakuru is located in the Rift Valley Province of Kenya, situated inside the Lake Nakuru National Park near the city of Nakuru. It may be best known for its large population of lesser flamingos (Phoeniconiais minor), at times reaching one million birds, who feed on the blue-green algae (Spirulina platenis) that thrives in the alkaline lake. Lake Nakuru has a fragile ecosystem, susceptible to climatic and human activities. During only 3 months of 1993, tens of thousands of flamingos died during a drought period and in the year 2000, 40,000 flamingos were reported dead at Nakuru National Park. Peculiar behavior, such as disorientation and a lack of mobility, were also observed. Flamingos have not only been dying at Lake Nakuru, but changing their migratory habits. Many have left Lake Nakuru, never to return. In this module, you will have the opportunity to explore reasons why the flamingos might be dying in Lake Nakuru Park. As is the case for many complex problems, addressing this question requires both the approach and the tools used by analytical chemists. In the process of thinking about the problem of the Lake Nakuru flamingos, you will have the chance to apply knowledge you have gained in your chemistry coursework and to learn in greater detail important concepts related to modern chemical analysis.

ASDL Active Learning Curricular Materials

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The materials presented on this website are the product of a collaborative NSF Phase I CCLI award to Thomas Wenzel, Bates College (DUE 0816649), and Cynthia Larive, University of California Riverside (DUE-0817595). The goal of this project was to develop active learning resources to support instruction in analytical chemistry courses. These materials were developed through the efforts of a team of collaborators. Additional materials currently under development will round out the analytical chemistry tool kit and expand the collection of context-based materials for classroom and laboratory use.

The Analytical Sciences Digital Library, ASDL, is an NSF-funded digital library, accessed at www.asdlib.org, that collects, catalogs, links and publishes peer reviewed web-based discovery materials pertinent to innovations in curricular development and supporting technical resources in the analytical sciences. The ASDL website (www.asdlib.org) is one of several collections funded by NSF’s National Science Digital Library(NSDL) program. ASDL was formed as a result of discussions at several regional and national meetings about ways to implement recommendations that were embodied in an earlier workshop report on Curricular Developments in the Analytical Sciences. This report is available as a pdf by clicking here. ASDL has recently formed a partnership with the Analytical Chemistry Division of ACS. By joining forces we hope to create even more enthusiasm for the ASDL collection, online articles, and student poster sessions while encouraging analytical scientists to become active in the Division of Analytical Chemistry.

What types of materials are collected by ASDL? ASDL materials have been selected for their educational value through a peer review process by experts in the field of analytical science and in the various fields of its application. Each web resource in the main collection of ASDL includes a detailed annotation describing the site and its useful attributes. In addition, JASDL, the online journal of the Analytical Sciences Digital Library, publishes peer-reviewed online articles in the categories of Courseware, Labware, Educational Practices, and Undergraduate Research. Because JASDL is an ungated, open source site, all publication is under the Creative Commons license , in which the author retains copyright but the licensee has the right to distribute without limit and web users can read, download, and hotlink without limit. Copies can be made, as long as the original author is cited as the creator of the material, and the copies are distributed at cost. All economic benefit, if any, from the material remains with the author.