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AN UNDERGRADUATE SEMINAR IN A LARGE CHEMISTRY DEPARTMENT' WARD B. SCHAAP AND HARRY G. DAY Indiana University, Bloomincjton, Indiana
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THE larger colleges and universities, especially those with graduate programs, there is a definite problem associated with providing some means of close contact, both scientific and personal, between the undergraduate chemistry majors and the entire chemistry faculty. To aid in the solution of this problem we have tried out for the past two years at Indiana University an undergraduate chemistry seminar, which we feel has been quite successful and which gives promise of making a contribution to our undergraduate program in several respects.
THE IDEA AND PURPOSE
The seminar vas planned to be essentially a research seminar, but with some time alloted to the educational and professional aspects of chemistry. It was agreed that the seminar should not be burdensome or a lot of extra work, but should be as enjoyable as possible. The student should listen, think, discuss, and be stimulated. As a maximum, the reading of several reports, a short written paper or two, and a brief final exam would be required. The course would carry one unit credit, would meet one hour a week, and would ordinarily be taken during the second semester of the junior year (prerequisite: 20 hours of chemistry). At this time the student should have sufficient background in chemistry to understand much of what he would hear, and yet it mould not be too late in his undergraduate career to do him some good. The general purpose of the seminar, as stated in the university bulletin, is to provide "orientation in the scientific and technical opportunities in chemistry," i. e., to give students a greater perspective in chemistry than is possible in the regular courses, which are of necessity rather specific. We hoped that these questions might be answered, a t least in part, in the student's minds: What do chemists do? What is chemical research and what are its objectives? How is a research problem attacked? What are the various members of the faculty doing? What are some unsolved problems of current importance? What do various courses in the undergraduate curriculum contribute to the education of a chemist for his profession and as a member of society? THE ORGANIZATION
The 15, weekly, hour-long seminars xere spent ap-
proximately as follows both times the course has been given. (1) At the introductory meeting the program and procedure for the course were explained by the department chairman, together with some observations on the history and scope of chemistry and its present status. ( 2 ) At the second meeting the faculty chairman of the chemistry curriculum committee discussed curricula for training chemists on both the undergraduate and graduate levels. The problem of establishing a proper balance between professional courses in chemistry and "cultural" courses in the arts and humanities was presented, and the brochure of the A. C. S. Committee on Professional Training, "Minimum Standards Used as Criteria in Evaluating Undergraduate Professional Training in Chemistry," was discussed in this connection. The purpose and procedure of training leading to the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees were explained in order to give the students some idea of what ggrduate study is like. (3-13) The major part of the semester was devoted to a discussion of research problems by various members of the faculty (especially those not connected with the principal undergraduate courses), post-doctoral research associates, or, in one or two instances, outstanding graduate students. The discussion leaders were asked to emphasize objectives and methods of their research programs and to point out by example that many interesting and unsolved problems exist in every phase of chemistry and how the chemist proceeds to solve them. What was not wanted was a neatly tied up and routinely factual research report, complete with extensive data, such as is usually heard a t technical meetings. Rather, we wanted a discussion of the reasons behind each research problem, its importance, what might be learned from the study, and possible experimental approaches t o solution of the problem, including the approach being used. (Soliciting ideas and discussion from the class, for example on possible experiments t o try and what each experiment proves, serves to develop interest, imagination, and critical judgment.) It was considered of primary importance to include as many fields and areas of chemistry as possible in the research discussions, and of secondary importance to include as many of the faculty as possible. (14) One of the last meetings was given over t o selfauoraisal and consideration of autitudes needed in chemistry. This involved stressing the importance of learning what types of jobs exist in chemistry ( 8 . g., research, production, or administration in chemical A.
Presented before the Division of Chemical Education a t the Sixteenth Midwest Regionel Meeting of t,he American Chemical Society, Omaha, November, 1954. 1
VOLUME 33. NO. 2. FEBRUARY, 1956
industry; research in governmental or private research foundations; teaching in colleges and universities; etc.) and what are the educational and personal qualifications required for each type of job. The importance of understanding one's true interests was emphasized. (15) A final e.~aminationwas given at the end of the course not so much for the purpose of determining the amount of factual material retained by the students, but rather to determine what ideas, concepts, and inspirations they had gained and what suggestions they might have as to the strong and weak points of the seminar. THE RESPONSE
I n order to judge how well the purposes of the seminar were realized from the students' points of view, the following questions were asked on the final examinations: "What aspects of the seminar made the strongest impressions on you? Please write frankly of your reactions to the seminar," or "Any comments you may care to make concerning the course will be appreciated.. .." (The students were informed that the comments made would have nothing to do with their grade in the course.) The comments correlated surprisingly well with the purposes and goals of the seminar and fell into several principal categories, which are listed below (in italics) together with some direct quotations from the students' papers. Increased Incentive and Purpose for Greater Sffort on the Part o f the Student in H i s Remaining Advanced Training. One student reported t,hat the seminar made him "more enthusiastic about chemistry." A girl was so challenged that she complained that not enough was said about what she could do right now to "pursue her interest in chemistry beyond her course work." Others said, "The need for graduate education was made evident by the fact that, while specific knowledge is needed for a particular field, the chemist must also possess a working knowledge of all other fields," and "I believe this seminar has helped me gain a better understanding of the requirements and opportunities for careers in chemistry." (We interpreted this last quotation to imply that knowing the requirements better, the student would he more diligent in his preparatory studies.) Better Understanding of What Chemical Research I s and Does and a n Increased Interest in Research. ''I think I might safely say that the greatest advantage I've gotten from this course is an idea of what research is like. Before taking the course I had no idea whatsoever." "I obtained valuable information about research in general. The general idea about research which I had was that things only have t o be figured out on paper-the actual procedure is then a routine step." "The manner in which a problem is attacked was clarified." "I also learned what some of the prohlems in chemistry are and, in general, I got the mental attitude toward them that a chemist is apt to have."
"Many undergraduates are, of course, confused as to what division and what phase of chemistry they may enter. This course seems to have touched on high points of many interesting research subjects." Opportunity to Know More of the Faculty, Their Interests, and What They Are Doing. "I appreciate getting to know the members of the faculty. They are all nice people to know as far as I'm concerned." "The coutact with the faculty members, whom one probably would never meet, was a very good thing to me and I really appreciated the seminar from this angle." "Such a course gives one a feeling of belonging, which is badly needed by a chemistry major, or, in fact, by anyone a t such a large university. I t will. . .make him feel more free to consult any member of the faculty about any special problem." ' T h e fact that most of the faculty are actively engaged in research, in addition to teaching duties, was not known to me prior to this course." "Another point brought out by the seminar vas the wide range of research problems being worked on here." "I had no idea of what was going on right under my nose in this building." "One thing that has impressed me is that many of the professors take a personal interest in the students besides just the professional interest a teacher should have." "The thing about the seminar that made the strongest impression on me was the apparent deep interest each speaker had concerning his particular field." (This last quotation indicates that the student caught the idea that chemistry can be a satisfying profession.) Some comments were made in criticism of the course; however, even these emphasized the fact that the basic idea and approach of the seminar were appealing to the students, but that we had not yet succeeded in getting all the faculty speakers to follow the desired style. ". . .Some of the speakers used the lecture-room style. I think that more conversation between speaker and students should be encouraged." "Perhaps it would help if the speakers would be more general in their approach, that is, instead of writing so many formulas, etc., to explain just why a certain approach was used, its value, etc." "Also, in many cases, the faculty member comes in and talks only about what he has done in his research. Although this is often interesting, it would, I think, be more useful if each of them could explain some of the things that haven't been done and some of the difficulties that have prevented or delayed them from being done." CONCLUSIONS
Those of us who have been closely associated with the seminar feel that it is accomplishing its purposes remarkably well. Student response shows that it fills several real needs in our curriculum which the usual lecture and laboratory courses either do not touch or fail to cover in an effective manner. Since our experience has thus far been encouraging, we plan to continue to offer the seminar each spring semester.
