C h a n g i n g Curriculum in Chemistry, 111 Robert I. Walter
Hoverford College Haverford, Pennsylvonio
New Curricular Features in Some Liberal Arts Colleges
T h e curri~:ulumsurvey sponsored by the Division of Chemical Education has revealed a number of curricular ideas which seen1 worth bringing to the teaching profession in somewhat greater detail than was possible in the original report.' Chemistry departments in a number of liberal arts colleges have undertaken rather drastic reorganizations of some of the traditional courses. Two of these new programs which involve courses in the first two years of the curriculum are described here.z Ursinus College
An integrated coursc ill chemistry, mathematics, and physics is required for all entering freshmen who are prospective science majors a t Ursinus College. The course is given by thrcc faculty members, one from each of the disciplines represented. Material from the three fields has bcen so thoroughly integrated that the presentation develops logically and cohesively. Usually, no more than three conserutive lectures are offered in any of the three subject areas. Lectures in each subject are given by the faculty member in that field, and a standard textbook is used for each of them. This is a triple credit course which involves seven lectures and two afternoon laboratory periods (one each for physics and chemistry) each week. One problem intrinsic to such a plan, that of how to treat students who fail a triple credit course, has been solved by permitting them to take re-examinations in two of the three survey courses which are still offered in the individual fields. (These survey courses are now intended only for non-science majors.) Thus these students can still earn passing grades in two science courses from their enrollment in the chemistry-math-physics course. Since the combined course is now a prerequisite for all other courses offered in biology, chemistry, and physics, it is necessary for an entering freshman to have made a decision that he will major in one of the sciences while i11 college. It is not necessary for him to have selected a specific science, so in this way the program offers significant flexibility to an undecided entering student. The individual departments have found the combined course a great advantage, because they can now count on a common background for all
' WALTER,R. I., J. CHEM.EDUC.,42,524 (1965). The author acknowledges with appreciation the cooperation of the following individnaleProfessor Rodger P. Staiger of Ursinus College, Collegeville, Pennsylvania; and Professor Earold A. Neidig of Lebanon Valley College, Annville, Pennsylvania.
students who enter their more advanced courses. Both students and faculty feel that the combined course effects efficiencies in the presentation of material which are not possible when the three subjects are offered separately. The chemistry department takes advantage of this course to permit specially qualified students to schedule physical chemistry during their sophomore year. The more normal program includes organic chemistry during the sophomore year, followed by physical chemistry during the junior year. Lebanon Valley College
Entering studcnts a t Lebanon Valley College are given the ACS cooperative examination in general chemistry as a placement examination. Their high school records and their grades on standard examinations, such as those of the College Entrance Examination Board, are evaluated, and they are also interviewed twice. On the basis of this information, about ten percent of the freshman students are permitted to enroll directly in the sophomore course in chemistry. The first semester of this course begins with a rapid survey of the nomenclature and descriptive chemistry of the common functional groups in organic chemistry. Conventional preparative-type laboratory work accompanies this part of the course, which lasts about eight weeks. The remainder of the first semester is devoted to a detailed treatment of acid-base t.heory. This includes consideration of effects of substitution on the strengths of aliphatic and aromatic acids, the acid dissociation constants of aliphatic dibasic acids, and the Hammett acidity function. Laboratory work illustrates some of these points through a study of the ionization constants and esterification rates for substituted benzoic acids, and the a .~.~ l i c a t i oofn the Hammett equation to these systems.
This paper is one of a series which follow from the study made by the Committee on Currioulum of the Division of Chemical Education. The statistical summaries and wnclusions were presented by Dr. Walter at the Atlantio City Meeting of the ACS in September, 1965 and appeared in this Journal, 42, 524 (1965). Other papers in that symposium were published in the March, 1966 issue of this Journal 43, 112ff (1966). We call readers' attention to the editorial comments presented there and to the invitation to describe other curricular experiments in these pages.
Volume 43, Number 10, Odober 1966
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The second semester opens with a study of chemical kinetics in which the students are trained to determine reaction rates and interpret them in terms of mechanisms. The examples are all taken from organic chemistry. The final six weeks of the semester are devoted to a detailed study of six organic functional groups in monofunctional systems: the carbonhydrogen bond, carbon-halogen bond, carbon-carbon
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double bond, the hydroxyl group, the carbonyl group, and the carboxyl group. The stereochemistry and reaction mechanisms involved are considered in detail, and illustrated in the laboratory work. Those students who are not assigned to this course as freshmen enter a conventional first year course on the principles of chemistry. They follow this during the sophomore year with the course described above.
