Donald R. Getzinl New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ 07102
New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) just celebrated its centennial. The Institute currently has a fulltime undergraduate enrollment of approximately 3300 students with an entering freshman class of approximately 675. Seventy-five percent of our students pursue degrees in computer science, chemical engineering, mechanical mgineering, electrical engineering, civil and environmental enginerring, industrial and management engineering, and engineering~science(which includes chemistry). Freshmen intending to enter one of these courses of study must complete a one-year (or the equivalent) chemistry course taught by the Chemistry Division of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry. Freshman chemistry is the last chemistry course required of most of our students. The chemistrv learned hv manv freshmen often serves them for the remainder of thkir acidemic and ~rofessionalcareers. However. for the 100 or so students who annually continue into chemical engineering or chemistrv. . . freshman chemistw.is .orereauisite for suhseauent study. Separate chemistry courses fur the two classes of students cannot be offered because NJIT has a lone-standinr: policy of a common freshman year core curriculum. This enables students to delav committine themselves to a course of study until their sophomore yeaL0ur freshman chemistry program must prepare students for careers in applied science fields not directly related to chemistry, while, a t the same time. orovide all the conceots, facts, and skills reauired hv thusr continuing into chem.ical engineering and chGmistry.. Prior to the t'all of 1967, students required to take freshman chemistry were also required to take one-semester, sophomore course in materials science taught by the Chemistry Division. Keeping with the national trend a t that time to reduce the number of courses and credits in the undergraduate engineering curriculum, the NJIT faculty voted to combine the one-vear, freshman chemistrv course and the one-semester, sophomore materials science course into a one-year, freshman core courie entitled "Chemistry and Materials." This course has been continuously taught since the fall of
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In addition to other advantages to be discussed later, the inclusion of materials science in freshman chemistrv produces a program with an applied, industrial orientation.. This is consistent with recent trends ( 1 , RI other institutions. perhaps occurring in response to concerns whether undergiaduate chemistry curricula are meeting the needs of industry (2).
' The a m thanks his stan and facullycolleagues in the Chemishy Division at NJIT for their woperation in the freshman "Chemistry and Materials" program and in the accumulation of data Rofessas Howard Kimmel and Robert Conley of the Chemistry Division and Professor Herbert Barkan of the Mathematics Department have been especially helpful in conshuctive criticism of this manuscript.
Course Content
Materials science topics have been included in freshman chemistry courses elsewhere ( 3 , 4 ) ,hut the NJIT "Chemistry and Materials" course is a true interdisciplinary course in which a t least one quarter of the time is devoted to materials science. Two textbooks are required for the one-year course: a standard freshman chemistry text (5)and a standard freshman/sophomore-level materials science text (6).The syllabus for the last three academic years is shown in Table 1.Materials science topics are specified. Topics 1 to 13 are covered in the first semester and tooics 14 to 25 in the second semester. The choice of topic; and their integration into the program were made in consultation with the various engineering departments a t NJIT. The actual topics covered and their order of coverage has chanced from vear to vear as textbooks and interests changed, hutthe thrust of thisprogram has remained constant. Compressing the content of a two-semester, freshman chemistry course and a one-semester materials Science course into a one-year, two-semester program requires eliminating Table 1. Syllabus for NJIT Freshmen "Chemlstry and Materials" Course Un~ts.Notat~an.Oef n loons Mater a s Cnaraclerlstlcsan0 Propenles' 3 Atomc and Malec.lar Masses. Mole Concept 4. Chemical Formulas 5. Chemical Reactions; Stoichiometry 6. Thermochemistry 1 lnnad~cton
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Elachonic Configuration of Atoms Covalent. ionic, and Metallic Bonding Liquids 11. Bonding in Materials; Coordination Numbers 12. Compo~ndsof Nonmetals; Introduction to Organic Molecules 13. ~oly&ric Materials' 14. Solids; Crystellography' 15. Crvstaline Defects' 16. Metals and Alloys' 17. Gas Phase Equilibria 18. Chemical Kinetics 19. Solytions 20. Acids and Bases 21. Ionic Equilibria 22. Electrochemistry and Carrosion 23. Soontaneitv of Chemical Reactions 24 Electrical Plopenter of Mater a s. Sem ~onalctors~ 25 Ceram cs Plezoelectr c an0 Magnel c Propert es' 8. 9. 10.
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science topics.
Volume 62
Number 2
February 1985
133
Table 2. Malerials Science Laboratory Experiments In the NJlT Freshman "Chemistry and Materials" Course Experiment 1. Diffractionand Spectroscopy. Experiment 2. Kinetic Theory of Rubber-Like Elasticity. Experiment 3. Crystal Shucture of Ceramics. Experiment 4. Interpretation of X-Ray Diffraction Powder Patterns. Experiment 5. The Microscopic Examination of a Brass Sample. Experiment 6. The Effectsof Cold Working and Annealing an Brass. Experiment 7. Properties of Semiconductors. some topics from both areas. From chemistry, we have chosen t o delete the study of coordination compounds, nuclear chemistry, hiochemistry, and much organic chemistry. From materials science, we eliminate the composition, properties, microstructure, and processing of multiphase materials such as steels and comoosite materials such as concrete. We also n o longer cover corrosion in any depth. I n a typical materials science course, considerable time is usually spent reviewing elementary chemistry. This repetition is unnecessarv in our nroaram-materials science tonics are introduced as soon as students have sufficient chkmistry backeround. Some traditional freshman chemistrv tonic* solid'itate and crystallography, for example- are &tro.duced onlv throueh materials scfrnce. Kliminatiun of hoth tvoes of overlap between the subjects aids in compressing the material into a one-year course, and provides an interdisciplinary approach to both subjects. Standard International (SI) units are used throughout-this serves as a simplifying and unifying factor. ~
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Laboratory Laboratom should teach scientific methods of inauim, acquaint students with the actual properties of chemicals and materials, train them in laboratory skills, show them how to keep accurate records and how to treat data, and give them experience in working with partners or in small groups. Materials science experiments serve equally as well & chimsitry exneriments for these purposes. over the course of thk academic year, our students perform twenty-six experiments in the laboratory, seven of which are materials science experiments. Two laboratory manuals are required: a standard freshman chemistry laboratory manual ( 7 ) and a materials science laboratory manual (8) compiled a t NJIT. The titles of the seven materials science experiments are listed in Table 2. I n experiment 1, students construct a cigar box spectroscope, calibrate it using the sodium D-line, measure the wavelengths of lines in the mercury and hydrogen emission spectra, and calculate the Rydberg constant and the ionization energy of hydrogen. This experiment is relevant to both chemistry and materials science. Experiment 2 permits students to observe an unusual property of the woss-linked polymer rubber: the stress required to maintain a specific elongation increases with temperature. The Celsius temperature of absolute zero is estimated from the rubber band sample and its chain density is determined. Experiment 3 involves the construction of styrofoam ball models of various important ceramic crystalline structures. In experiment 4, students analyze a simulated X-ray diffraction powder pattern of a cubic substance, determine its lattice type, and find the lattice constant. Exoeriments 5 and 6 are oerformed in a materials science laboratory, not a c h e m i s t j laboratory. In experiment 5, students prepare a brass sample for microscopic The listed uncertainty is the 95% confidence interval. A detailed description of the analysis is available from the author upon request. For example, See reference (. 9.)for a discussion of the Piagetian view of cognitivedevelopment.
134
Journal of Chemical Education
examination and determine its ASTM crain size number. In 6, changes in a brass sample's hardnes'are measured as i t is subjected to cold rolling and then heat treating a t several temperatures. Recrystallization temperatures are estimated. The electrical properties of a doped P or N germanium semiconductor sample are examined in experiment 7. Its energy gap, doping type, and doping level are found. Assessment of Student Performance on Chemistry and Materials Science Topics Final examination results have been statistically analyzed ovw n two-year period to assess student in the separate materialli science and chemistry components of our cotrrse. The samole consistt~dof well over 600 different students who compieted o w "regular track" (i.e., non-remedial) program. This analysis showed that our students score 11.6 f 9.8 percentage points lower on materials science questions than on chemistry question^.^ Any instructor considering incorporating materials science into her or his freshman chemistry course should be aware that our freshmen, a t least, find materials science more difficult than chemistry. The actual reasons why o w freshmen do not perform as well on materials science questions as on chemistry questions are unknown, but we suspect that the following factors contribute. 1) Materials science is more rigorous, both mathematically and concentuallv.than freshman chemistw. Since indicationsare that manyfreshGen have not fully compieted their cognitive develo ~ m e n tit, ~might be expected that they would have greater difficulty with this material. 2) Materials science textbwks reflect the rigorousness of the subject, but are often tersely written. Supplementaryaids for freshmen, such as study guides and audiovisual materials, are not readily available. Freshmen. therefore, have fewer sources of helo. . . outside the ciarsmrm, with matprial* sciencc than with chemisrry. :i) Adjunct instructors and graduate teaching asslstanu uftrn have weak baackgrutcndv in matPrmls a&,ae and rannot hplp rhrir students as much with materials science as with chemistry. Final Comments Combining chemistry and materials into a single freshman course has advantages for both engineering and chemistry students. I I All studenta are made aware of a rerrnt technok~gical rwolution: instead of materials brmg rhlrsen to meet specifications from a Jimnpd liit of those nvailill~lr.o wpnlth
