Chem Curriculum

I have been pondering theoretical chemistry, CHEM 4551, and how this course could be a possible elective for more students. Here are a few ideas:
1) remove CHEM 3502 (Physical Chemistry II) as a prerequisite
2) have CHEM 3501 (Physical Chemistry I) as a pre- or corequisite and/or consent of instructor
3) The CHEM 4551 would have two half-semester parts:
a) orbitals, chemical bonding, and computational chemistry for the first half
b) statistical thermodynamics for the second half
The first half of the course would work well with other parts of our curriculum where reasoning with orbitals and /or computation are helpful. I think that this can be taught in a way that would not require the p-chem II prerequisite. It is really the second half that would need p-chem I as a pre- or co-requisite. The first and second half could have separate listings, 4551a and 4551b. If so, could each be 1.5 credits? Both together would match the current course description for chem 4551.

Posted by aliaj at 6:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

At the E3 conference last tuesday, I was struck by the importance of catalysts -- all of this high-powered research in renewable energy and green chemistry relies heavily on the continued research and development in organometallic chemistry, specifically w/r/t use of homogenous catalysts to carry out environmentally friendly transformations (green chem) and otherwise impossible (C-H activation) or unfavorable transformations. This makes me think that it is not a good idea to ditch the "Synthesis" class, which focuses on this kind of chemistry.

What I do think we need to think about is 1) how do we clue students in early on into this kind of chemistry and 2) make sure they have the opportunity to take classes that will prepare them for a variety of career tracks, especially since they are not likely to stay in the same job for their entire career.

Posted by carpenne at 10:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is what Frank Cerra had to say about the direction the AHC (Academic Health Center) is headed:



"Development of a new approach to education and training that is patient centered, team-based, evidenced-based, life-long, civically engaged, and occurs in an electronically enhanced learning environment;"



Seems to me that we change "patient centered" to "student centered" and we're talking about the same positive direction...nec

Posted by carpenne at 9:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Alumnus Andrew Christianson was haunting the halls last week and I got some interesting info out of him w/r/t what we could do better based on his experiences in his current job as a lab manager:

• more experience in dealing with people -- maybe recommend taking a management course
  
• exposure to the "real world" of having to buy chemicals and equipment (Ted - I'm thinking that we can easily incorporate this into an assignment in ItR)
  
• Can never have too much instruction on making solutions (he commented on how the others who work there - non-chemists - have no clue what molarity is or how to make up a solution)
  
• "unleash them" -- he suggested that we consider more s/n coursework so that students feel more free to take risks.
  

Posted by carpenne at 2:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Not that I wasn't paying attn during yesterday's E3 conference, but several thoughts came to me throughout the day:

• We need to keep our focus on interdisciplinarity. I see our intro courses (first two years; whatever form they take) being as broad as possible so that students see how chemistry is used to solve all kinds of problems and can lead into all sorts of careers. Jr/Sr. level courses? How radical/interdisciplinary can we go?
  
• Standardization: I hope that we will discuss working together to make our curriculum more coherent -- standardization of lab requirements, for example, in a spirit of compromise! : ) Writing requirements throughout our curriculum? Use of the primary literature throughout our curriculum?
• What role is technology going to play in our future curriculum? Are we going to offer any on-line courses? Can we afford not to? (I'm no fan, but I think we have to ask the question)
• Outreach/service learning/collaboration -- How can we break down the walls of our ivory tower and incorporate more partnerships with the community?
• (Most importantly) This is something that we really have to work together on. It's not "the o-chem curriculum" or "electives" or "my favorite subject" but "how do we improve the major" and "how do we step into the future?"

Continue reading "intro ideas from NEC" »

Posted by carpenne at 7:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)