How do you hold the all-important hands-on laboratory element of a chemistry course when the entire class is in cyberspace? The obvious answer is that you can’t. So the next best thing is to combine the online teaching mode with its bricks and mortar counterpart and hold what Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) Chemistry Professor Robert Paine calls a "Power Lab."

RIT is one of the few campuses nationwide providing introductory chemistry courses in a distance learning format. For example, RIT distance learning students can earn a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Management and Technology without setting foot on campus, except for the three-credit corequisite Chemistry Principles I, Chemistry Principles II and Introduction to Organic Chemistry courses, which all require three-days of physical attendance at a supplemental one-credit Power Lab on the RIT campus in Rochester, New York.

Paine initiated and developed the Power Labs, which are intensive hands-on chemistry labs where distance learning students meet face-to-face with Paine and their classmates when the quarter semester is about two-thirds complete. The Power Labs use the exact same syllabus, and students conduct the same experiments, plus they compile lab reports, as RIT’s traditional chemistry classes, says Paine. "We have not jeopardized or abbreviated the labs in any way."

To help defray airline travel costs for distance learning students who do not live close to Rochester, Power Labs usually meet from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, so students can take advantage of cheaper air fares that require a Saturday stay over. One student, for instance, lived more than 4,000 miles away in northern Alaska, yet he managed to attend Paine’s Power Labs on two occasions to complete his chemistry course work.

For the lecture side of these distance learning courses, students view videotapes of Paine’s lectures, as well as participate in online discussion groups and communicate via email for submitting homework assignments or to ask questions and share insights with Paine and each other. In addition to communicating by email, Paine, a 71-year-old devoted teacher with 50 years of teaching experience, tells all his students he can be reached by phone at his home or office between the hours of 6:30 a.m. and 11 p.m. seven days a week. "Every student I have is unique," he says. "Every student gets as much time as they want with me if they decide to call me."

Such dedication to helping his students is only one part of Paine’s overall teaching philosophy. When he talks about teaching he uses words such as "ecstatic," "gratifying," and "wonderful." He brings these positive human qualities to the distance learning environment, making students feel comfortable with taking chemistry, which is frequently considered to be a difficult and boring course.

"What I want a student to feel is that they are in a receptive environment," he says. "I want them to feel good about their thinking process. If they feel good about their thinking process, then they’ll feel good about asking questions. If they ask questions, then we have a super way to interact with each other. I like all my students to learn that it’s fun to think. If they find that it’s fun to think, then they can accomplish anything.

"I’ve just stretched my office hours," he continues. "Frustration is anti productive. If my students can talk to me, their frustration level drops to where it does not inhibit learning."

Paine also has a way of making chemistry look simple and not intimidating. He admits that learning chemistry is like learning a new language; but by relating chemistry to everyday life, students can begin to change the way they understand the basics of chemistry. For example, what happens when you mix salt with water? "You get ions," says Paine. "There’s the new language. Then we start using chemical symbols to make formulas and to show material relationships. If you relate this to chemistry in the kitchen, you can take two tablespoons of sugar and put it into something and stir it – that is a chemical preparation. Now let’s go into the lab and do it a little differently. We’re going to use grams instead of ounces. We’re going to use millimeters instead of fluid ounces. All of sudden we’re changing the language, but we haven’t really changed the function. We’ve taken the strange language and brought it down to everyday life."

Paine has an uncanny ability of creating a human connection between the distance learning course and the student. "He made my return to academia smooth and less intimidating," wrote one distance learning student who returned to school after a 14-year absence. Another distance learning student wrote: "I returned to college for the fist time in nine years. It was somewhat intimidating that my first course would be Chemistry Principles I. Many people thought I should think about easing back into school with a less challenging course. However, Dr. Paine’s teaching methods made my return easy."

Paine’s formula for success is based upon some simple yet wise tenets: "First, I vowed to always be a better teacher than the teacher who taught me," he says. "I’m always trying to improve. Second, I go out of my way to never say no. It does not matter if I agree or not. I will say ‘how about this?’ instead of saying no." Also, "there are no dumb questions except the ones you don’t ask."

And perhaps even important is Paine’s philosophy on life. Paine, the healthy septuagenarian, says, "you are as young as you think you are, and the more you keep the brain going, the younger the body is going to be."

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