Chemistry Laboratory Techniques
MIT OpenCourseWare offers this introductory lab course teaching first year students the core techniques of experimental chemistry. The materials, developed by Dr. Katherine Franz and Dr. Kevin Shea with input from Professors Rick Danheiser and Timothy Swager, cover skills such as recrystallization, extraction, distillation, and spectroscopic analysis through a structured laboratory manual and problem sets. Students who complete the coursework can earn a Competent Chemist or Expert Experimentalist rating, credentials MIT notes can help students secure research positions in a chemistry lab. The course includes safety training guidance, since the experiments involve hazardous materials and require proper supervision and equipment. As with other MIT OCW offerings, all lecture notes, lab manuals, and assignments are freely available online, though no certificate is issued through the platform itself.