Chemical Education Today edited by
Association Report: 2YC3
John Kenkel Southeast Community College Lincoln, NE 68520-1227
C3S and Two-Year Colleges: A Partnership for Progress by Tamar Y. Susskind
Many college chemistry departments seek the advice of outside consultants. Sometimes a department requires expertise to solve a specific problem, at other times it seeks external validation for the quality of its program. The College Chemistry Consultants Service (C3S) is a resource that hasn’t been tapped significantly by two-year colleges even though it has the means to focus on the many challenges that two-year colleges face. C3S is an activity shared jointly between the ACS Division of Chemical Education (DivCHED) and SOCED, the (ACS) Society on Committee on Education. The staff of the ACS Education and International Activities Division coordinates its operations. Approximately 30 chemistry educators with a wide range of knowledge and experiences on many levels of chemistry education serve as consultants for C3S. Two-year colleges—“comprehensive” community, technical, and junior colleges—vary markedly in their mission statements and goals. Their diverse purposes can include all or part of career-oriented, occupational–technical programs, remedial and developmental services, credit and non-credit community education (which serve as personal life enrichment opportunities), general education programs, and lowerdivision collegiate courses geared toward earning credits that would transfer to baccalaureate programs at four-year colleges and universities. Each two-year institution, however, shares one common goal… to offer quality education that responds quickly and creatively to both the needs of the students and to the marketplace demands of the community. There are countless areas where C3S can be called upon to provide expert advice to two-year college departments in which chemistry is offered, such as the following. •
Reviewing the quality of a chemistry program’s curriculum using the ACS Guidelines for Chemistry Programs in Two-Year Colleges (1), a set of standards for institutional self-study, evaluation, and improvement. The Guidelines help ensure that the chemistry course offerings are consistent with the mission of the institution and meet the needs of students with diverse backgrounds and abilities.
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Reviewing chemistry curricular content, curricular development, and methods of student, classroom, and program assessment.
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Identifying prerequisites and student readiness for entrance into introductory chemistry courses.
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Providing preliminary guidance to institutions with chemistry-based technician programs that may seek ACS approval from the Chemical Technology Program Approval Service (CTPAS) in the future.1
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Offering advice on the adequacy of industrial and institutional support to establish a chemistry-based technician program.
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Reviewing the integration of computers and other technology into an instructional program and suggesting ways to enhance the use of technology.
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Providing up-to-date resources on issues of transfer and articulation to the four-year institutions to which most students transfer and tools for establishing liaisons between community college and university departments.
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Encouraging collaboration and the formation of networks and partnerships—with other two-year colleges, four-year institutions, industry, and the community— through activities such as in-service programs, grant writing, and student affiliate programs.
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Developing initiatives to both increase the number and improve the quality of proposals to NSF and other funding agencies.
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Encouraging participation in the NSF Collaboratives for Excellence in Teaching Preparation program, requiring that the department recruit, provide preteaching experiences, and develop undergraduate courses for prospective chemistry teachers that will coordinate with four-year institutions.
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Providing appropriate contacts to help develop instructional courses and programs for changing student populations, such as distance learning, Web-based courses, honors programs, interdisciplinary courses, liberal arts chemistry courses, multicultural education, customized courses for business and industry, and workforce development courses.
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Reviewing how the chemistry curriculum complements or supplements other courses and programs within the college, for example, nursing, physics, and biology.
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Evaluating chemistry laboratory instruction (including safety instruction), laboratory facilities and their design, and safety equipment, as well as instrumentation used for specific course offerings.
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Suggesting available opportunities for continuing professional development and enhancement as well as outreach programs to local high schools, businesses, and industry in the community.
C3S has had many success stories with two-year institutions. One concerns a faculty member who related that he was given the authority to purchase a new IR for his organic laboratory course as a result of a follow-up report from a C3S consultant visit. He had spent five previous years trying, without success, to justify the expenditure to his administration. Are you ready for a success story of your own? If so, contact Steve Iwanowski, the C3S staff member at ACS,2 who can help facilitate the process and suggest a consultant who can provide the specific expertise to match your needs. There
Journal of Chemical Education • Vol. 80 No. 9 September 2003 • JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu
Chemical Education Today
Association Report: 2YC3 is also more information, including forms and guidelines for preparing for a visit, available at the C3S Web site.3 A typical C3S consulting visit lasts one or two days and costs approximately $1300. This includes travel, lodging, meals, an honorarium of $250 per day for the consultant, and a $200 fee for producing a written report. But the best news of all is that the costs of some two-year college consulting visits may be partly defrayed by a grant from ACS, making a C3S consulting visit a wonderful investment toward achieving academic quality.
2. Steve Iwanowski, the ACS staff member who coordinates C3S visits, can be reached at 202/872-6124 or
[email protected]. 3. Find more information about C3S at this Web site: http:// www.chemistry.org/portal/a/c/s/1/acsdisplay.html?DOC=education \institutional\c3s.html (accessed Jul 2003).
Literature Cited 1. Guidelines for Chemistry Programs in the Two-Year Colleges, American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1997; http:// www.chemistry.org/education/2year.html (accessed Jul 2003).
Notes 1. For more information on the Chemical Technology Program Approval Service (CTPAS), contact Sam Stevenson, the ACS staff member who coordinates the program, at 202/872-6108 or
[email protected].
Tamar Y. Susskind teaches in the Natural Science/Health Education Department of Oakland Community College, 2900 Featherstone Road, Auburn Hills, MI 48326-2845;
[email protected].
JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu • Vol. 80 No. 9 September 2003 • Journal of Chemical Education
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