Mass spectrometers are widely implemented in both industrial and academic research laboratories as well as clinical laboratories. Both the hardware and software associated with current mass spectrometers can be difficult to understand, operate and utilize. The learning curve for first time users is so steep as to be nearly insurmountable. For these reasons, as well as others, undergraduate students rarely have an opportunity to have hands-on access to high quality mass spectrometers. Therefore, these students may not be well prepared for the research environments that await them after graduation. In an attempt to correct this situation and better prepare undergraduate students for future careers, we have developed a laboratory activity to introduce students to mass spectrometry. This activity was designed to introduce students to basic mass spectrometric hardware and software operations. This activity was also designed to be accomplished in a teaching university setting with limited reagent and time availability. A full lab report, including questions about the activity and technology, was written by the students within 48 hours of the lab exercise. Finally, we believe that this individual activity can be used as a foundation for other mass spectrometry based labs, including capstone-type, semester long laboratory classes. In this report, we describe the organization, implementation and outcomes of this activity.
