A Chemistry Course for the Underprepared Science Major Several courses for the underprepared student haw k n dewrib4 in rhe liwmture.' in this paper a ruc~~.isful appnmh fur the underprepared acrenee major will be described and evaluated. Enrering students have w r y diverse high s r h w l hackgrounds: some have had only a superficial chemistry course, consisting of vague descriptions of "what chemistry is about"; otheis have had a rigorous two-year course, using a college text in the second year. These varying degrees of preparation are revealed by placement tests in algebra, chemistry, and trigonometry. These placement examinations were developed by the Pennsylvania State University examination services. The criterion for decidingwhether a student is underprepared is his total score on the olaeement examinations. Students scorine below aeertain cutoffwere oreviauslv toenrall .reauired . in n liherd nrtr-oriented one term chemistrv course lChem 11)before o r d i n e to the more rieoraus science m a i d seauence per week (Chem 12A); this section had a higher percentage of agriculture and human development students. Chem 1 2 8 was run in the same format as the previous standard Chem 12-two lectures and one recitation per week. At the end of the two comes, the performance of the underprepared students was essentially the same as the Chem 12B students. This enabled the weakerstudents to bypass Chein 11,thus saving them a term of Chemistry. In the two courses as many variables as possible were controlled: the text, tyllabi, and examinations were identical; and the two instructors conferred extensively so that the methods of oresentation. includine the use of demonstrations and visual aids. were as similar as oossible. Eexh instructor handled the lecturertand recitntionr for his students The quizzes, which constituted l6%of the course grade, were similar but nut identical. Thus the authors are fswly cont~dentthat the principal difference between the t u u < ot~rsi-srs the extra recitation. The enrollment in Chcm 12A was 112 students, and in 12R 1 :39students. The 12A and H rwtiuni had avemgrs and standard deviations, for the course, of 71.0 i 11.9% and 75.9 i 11.0%, respectively. ~
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Wa1tor.R I.. J,CHEMEDUC..48,3M(L971)Kotnik,L. J . . J CHEMEDUC.51.165
Behrend College Eire, Pennsylvania 16510
292 / JoumIef Chemical Education
l197$.
MecLstroth.W. K.. J. CHEMEDUC..51.329
l1970.
Donald R. Leevers Louis W. Balmer
