The Changing Curriculum in Chemistry: Robert I. Walter Hoverford College Hoverford, Pennsylvania
Some Contemporary Developments
I
Report of a survey
I n the years before and during World War 11, undergraduate chemistry curricula at American colleges and universities developed an almost dreary uniformity. I n most cases, a year of general chemistry was followed by qualitative and quantitative analysis, organic chemistry, and finally physical chemistry in the senior year. Some doubling of the program permitted advanced work in one or more fields during the last year of college. During the past 20 years a number of factors have produced pressures to raise the level, amount, and sophistication of undergraduate training in chemistry. One of these factors is the rapid development of chemistry and the other sciences. A second is the recent improvement in high school training in mathematics and the sciences. Another is improved communication between chemistry and through conferteachers through THIS JOURNAL ences such as those sponsored by MACTLAC (Midwest Association of Chemistry Teachers in Liberal Arts Colleges). Finally, the graduate schools have come to expect a higher level of training during the undergraduate years. All of these factors led the Committee on Professional Training in the Fall of 1962 to revise its minimum standards for evaluating undergraduate professional education. As a result, curricular changes have been discussed and tried out a t a great many institutions in recent years. One consequence of these events is that no one knows just what the nature of undergraduate training in chemistry is a t the present time in the United States. A number of groups within the American Chemical Society-The Committee on Professional Training, the Board Committee on Education and Students, and the Committee on Curriculum of the Division of Chemical Education-have an interest in this problem. I n addition, the Advisory Council on College Chemistry is interested in promoting curricular improvements. Discussions within the Committee on Curriculum and with representatives of these other groups led the Division of Chemical Education to request and support a survey of current undergraduate chemical education. Widespread Change Questionnaires were mailed to some 830 institutions on a National Academy of Sciences list of institutions which grant a Bachelor's degree with a major in chemistry. (This means that junior colleges, and fouryear colleges which do not offer a chemistry major, were not included.) Replies were received from some 63% of the departments; these replies provide the material for this report. It is a pleasure to acknowledge the effort devoted by many busy people to completing the 524 / Journol of Chemical Education
questionnaire, and the pride which they feel in the curricular developments in which they are participating. About 95% of the institutions which responded had made some sort of changes in their undergraduate curriculum for chemistry majors during the past five years. Responses on the questionnaires were entered on punch cards; the data were normalized to a semester basis and then correlated on a n IBM 1620 computer. A number of questions were designed to obtain an impression of the nature of these curricular changes by suggesting ways in which changes might be classified. The first of these had to do with the basic nature and philosophy of the changes. Three possibilities were suggested which could he checked in all combinations. Of the 500 institutions which reported curricular changes during the past five years, the greatest number (73%) had revised the course sequence with accompanying changes in content to accommodate the changes in sequence. The next most frequent response (63'%) reported revision of course content within the same course sequence. A smaller number (56%) reported reorganization of traditional topics to give a curriculum based upon a new course structure. The combinations of multiple responses to this question are indicated in Table 1. Note that the classifications provided on the questionnaire were not mutually exclusive, so that a respondent could logically check any combination of them. Table I. General Nature of Curricular Changes Reported Nature of chanees
Number of resnonses
a
92 135 92 24 19 26 110
b a, b e a, C
b, C b, c
a,
Code far changes: a. Revision of course content within the earlier course structure. b. Revision of the course sequence with accompanying necessary changes in content to accommodate the changes in sequence. c. Reorganization of traditional topics to give a curriculum based upon a new course structure.
I n order to provide an easily recognizable basis for classifying the types of changes made by the various departments, the question on this matter was based on curricula described in the report of the Committee on Curriculum and Advanced Courses of the Advisory Council on College Chemistry (distributed to all
chemistry departments shortly before the questionnaire was mailed).' The six curricular schemes described there have come to be identified by the names of some of the institutions which have used them, but brief descriptions were reproduced on the questionnaire as reminders. The first of these is the Illinois-MIT plan, in which analytical chemistry is moved to the junior year, following one or two semester courses in both organic and physical chemistry. The second is the older Brown plan (now replaced by a new curriculum), in which descriptive covalent chemistry, most of which is organic, is given in the freshman year. The third is the Earlham plan, which involves a r e organization of the curriculum by concepts, rather than by the traditional fields of chemistry. The fourth is the Haward program, in which organic, inorganic, physical, and analytical chemistry are introduced simultaneously during a four-semester introductory sequence for a selected group of students. The final example was the Wabash-Beloit plan, which involves a combined chemistry-physics course of two semesters or greater length for the introductory course in science. This question produced relatively few multiple responses, and 40% of the responding institutions described their curricular changes as most nearly resembling the MIT-Illinois plan. No more than 2% of the responding institutions checked any other single plan or combination of plans. Over 50% of the respondents did not check any of these possibilities. It does not seem safe to conclude that the new programs in the majority of responding institutions are vastly dierent from any of those suggested. A more probable reason for the low response rate is that the programs used as examples simply were not familiar to those who filled out the questionnaire. A large number of respondents went to considerable pains to describe the curricula which they now offer; it is obvious that a great deal of thought and effort have gone into these developments. The next set of questions was intended to determine
' "Ex~erimentalCurriaula in Chernistrv." n,--r.-.r..r-..-., rennrt nrennred hv the Conkiteee on ~urriculumand Advanced Courses of the Advisory Council on College Chemktry, dated October, 1963, and distributed to all chemistry departments in September, 1964. ~
~~
Table 2.
~~
whether any relationship exists between the type of institution and the type of program revisions undertaken by it. Searches for correlations of this type showed that there is no significant relationship between the types of changes instituted by a department and the department size or the highest degree offered. With 500 responses, the probability is less than 0.001 that a correlation coefficient between two unrelated variables (that is, not related as cause and effect)would exceed 0.15. (Some of the variables, of course, are not unrelated. For example, the undergraduate enrollment in the first course for chemistry majors should bear some relationship to the size of the chemistry department teaching staff. We ignore pairs of variables of this type, which should have some causeeffect relationship to one another.) Only those institutions which do not grant a degree beyond the Bachelor level were asked to answer one set of questions. For these, there are significant correlations between pairs of variables from the following list: Number of original research publications in five y-. Number of articles on teaching problems in the past five years. Average research funds provided by the department. Average research funds provided from outside the department. Number of undergraduates who participate in research during the academic year or during the summer. Nature of Present Curriculum
I n order to obtain a picture of the general nature of the present undergraduate chemistry curriculum in the responding institutions, they were asked to enter in a table the number of weeks devoted to each of a series of 17 listed topics in the field of chemistry during each of the four undergraduate years. The schools were also asked whether they operate on a quarter, semester, or three-term-three-course basis. All the data were then reduced by the computer to a semester basis by dividing the work of the middle quarter or term between the first and second semesters, and by counting one course for one and one-half quarters or for one term under the threethree plan as one semester's work. The data can be presented in either of two forms. The first of these, in Table 2, is simply a frequeucy count of the number of times a topic is mentioned in each of the eight terms of the undergraduate program. Ib gives a quick indication of the distribution of topics through
Frequency Count of Topics Offered During Each of Eight Semesters"
Topio
1
Semester number-2
3
4
Elementary descriptive inorganic Advanced inorganic Qualitative analysis Volumetrio analysis Gravimetric analysis Instrumental andysis Elementary descriptive organio Oreanie auslitative analvsis Organic rkaction mechaiisms Other topics in physical-organic Classical elementmy physicsical Thermodvnamicsb ~uantum"mechanics~ Statisticrtl mechenicsb Biochemistryb Literature seminar Inde~endentlilboratorv research a
5
6
..
..
7
8
..-
Based upon 476 usable replies. This topic is offered thmugh another department in a significant number of cases. Volume 42, Number 10, October 1965
/ 525
the four years. Table 3 gives the fraction of the semester devoted to each of these topics in each of the eight terms of the undergraduate program. These fractions are averages, and hence do not have great significance for any individual program. One should read Tables 2 and 3 for trends, rather than ascribe significance to the numerical values there. There are some weaknesses in the data obtained in this way. I n the first place, the table on the questionnaire form represented a compromise between the contradictory objectives of obtaining complete information and of minimizing the time required to fill out the questionnaire. As a result, no provision was made for the separation of lecture and laboratory time; and such a separation must be important, particularly for topics such as analytical chemistry. I n addition, a week of work may represent from one to five hours of credit. Here again, it did not seem worthwhile in a preliminary study to ask for a breakdown in terms of credit hours. Finally, so many respondents failed to distinguish compulsory and elective topics (and there is of course the additional complication that some topics are required of pre-professional majors, but not of other majors) that these cannot be separated in a tabulation of the results. One can discern some trends in thecurriculum changes which have been reported. It seems clear that many schools are just now breaking away from the traditional course sequence: general, analytical, organic, and physical chemistry plus one advanced course. Possibly the most general trend is in the direction of teaching all of the basic courses in the first three years, with the fourth available for more specialized advanced courses and research. Major changes have occurred in the location of analytical chemistry in the curriculum. Most schools now offer qualitative analysis as a part of a freshman course, and on the average devote less than half a semester to this field. Volumetric and gravimetric analysis are distributed through the four years of the program, but still appear with greatest frequency in the sophomore year. It is clear, however, that only a fraction of the total instructional time in the sophomore year is devoted to analytical chemistry, in contrast to the prevailing practice of 20 years ago. A change which appears with great frequency
Table 3.
Allocations of Instructional Time to Topics in Chemistry*
Tooie
1
Elementary descriptive inorganic Advanced inorganic Qualitative anitlysir Volumetric analysis Gravimetric analysis Instrumental snalysis Elementary descriptive organic Organic qualitative analysis O r g a ~ creaction mechanism Other topics in physical-organic Classical elementary physical Thermodynamics Quantum mechanics Statistical mechanics Biochemistry Literature seminar Independent laboratory research
67 1 7 4 3 0 1
Based upon 476 usable replies. ''Percentages are averages over 476 replies.
526
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Journal of Chemical Education
is the scheduling of a semester of work in instrumental analysis during one of the last three terms of the curriculum. This is obviously a response to the revised standards of the Committee on Professional Training. Elementary organic chemistry is now given most often as a sophomore course, usually with some attention to organic reaction mechanisms, and one third of the responding institutions give some laboratory work in organic qualitative analysis during the second semester of this course. Physical chemistry is now offered in at least some institutions in each of the eight semesters of the undergraduate program. Some 25% of the responding institutions devote substantial amounts of time to this topic in the first term of the curriculum. Practice in this respect varies widely, from institutions (such as Harvey Mudd College) which require a full semester of rigorous physical chemistry of all students in the second term of the program, to institutions which offer only some descriptive topics from traditional physical chemistry in the early years. The extent to which topics from physical chemistry which are presented during the freshman year in only a semi-quantitative fashion must then be repeated a t a later stage in the curriculum is not clear from the responses. Physical chemistry, including thermodynamics, is most often given today as a junior course. There is still a difference of opinion as to whether quantum mechanics and statistical mechanics belong in the undergraduate curriculum. A number of schools present descriptive material from quantum mechanics as early as the freshman year. Clearly this is not a detailed mathematical treatment of the subject. About 60% of the responding institutions offer it during one of the last three terms of the curriculum as a substantial fraction of the work of that term. Finally, there has been a striking growth in independent laboratory research as a part of the undergraduate curriculum. Most schools limit this to the fourth year of the program. Obviously this increase has been stimulated in large part by the availability of supporting funds from the National Science Foundation. One can question the extent to which these results are biased by the failure to get complete returns. It seems probable that the frequency of curricular
0 0 0 14 1 1 0 0 0 0
-
2
3
4
-ii
PI "
7
-
53 1 41 6 3
2 2 11 24 14 3 47 2 9 2 3 1 0 0 0
1 2 2 11 9 9 43 8 13 3 7 2 1 0 0 1 1
1 8 2 14 11 7 31 10 9 3 43 18 4 2 5 9 9
0 10 1 4 4 21 24 9 8 3 44 9 8 4 9 9 12
0 40 0 2 3 24 6 32 16 12 29 15 11 3 33 27 62
0 31 0 2 3 29 4 15 13 10 24 7 8 5 27 24 65
Percent of each semester devoted to that topicb
1
4 0 0
0 6 1 0 0 1 0 0
1 1
II
modifications would he lower for those schools which did not reply than for those which did. They tend to he the institutions with the heaviest teaching and administrative loads; these inhibit both curricular innovation and the completion of questionnaires. Some Special Programs
It seems worthwhile to mention some of the curricula which were described in detail on the responses to the questionnaire, where these appear to hold special interest. There is risk of distortion of these descriptions in the process of abbreviating and classifying them; for these faults the author takes the responsibility. Amherst College has had some 17 years of experience with a program which required a calculus-physics course of all freshmen. One consequence of this requirement has been that the entire chemistry curriculum has been presented in the last three undergraduate years. This requirement is now being abandoned, and a revised chemistry curriculum is in use. Both Amherst and Haverford Colleges now offer a one-semester iutroductory course for better-prepared students which is followed by a semester of thermodynamics. Less well-prepared students take two semesters of general chemistry, and begin their thermodynamics during the sophomore year. The thermodynamics is followed by two more terms of physical chemistry which include lahoratory training in quantitative techniques. No separate courses in quantitative analysis are offered. Other schools such as Brooklyn College and King's College (in Wilkes-Barre) offer a full year of physical chemistry for the sophomore year. I n hoth cases, the demands of a rigorous quantitative treatment are difficult for some students to meet, and the weakest ones defer this work until the junior year. A few schools are trying one or more courses which involve the type of reorganized course structure characteristic of the Earlham curriculum. These courses which cross traditional fields of chemistry are not very common, and they seem to be limited to the liberal arts colleges. Lebanon Valley College offers a course either to better-prepared freshmen or to sophomores which combines background material on monofunctional organic compounds, chemical equilibrium and kinetics, and electrochemistry, and culminates in an intensive study of six organic functional groups from the viewpoints of structure, thermodynamics, stereochemistry, kinetics, and mechanism. Middlebury College does not combine topics within individual courses, hut offersfour one-semester courses, one in each of the four traditional fields, which can be elected by the students in any order after completion of a onesemester introduction to the fundamentals of chemistry. This program implies that for most students there will be gaps of one or more semesters between the first- and second-semester courses in each field. The combined chemistry-physics introductory course (earlier labeled the Wahash-Beloit plan) is now offered a t some 20 institutions. Ursinus College is now offering for the second year a combined chemistry-mathematics-physics course in which the topics traditional to the three fields have been thoroughly integrated. This is a triple-credit course with seven lectures and two afternoons of lahoratory each week. Students feel that
it is a particular advantage to apply new mathematical concepts immediately in problems in chemistry or physics. Since this is a triple-credit course, a prospective science major who fails is in deep trouble. He is then permitted to take reexaminations in two of the three separate courses for the individual fields, for college credit. Some of the state universities reported interesting methods for the classification of entering students for admission to their various iutroductory courses. At Kansas State University, all entering students with credit in high school chemistry are placed in a course which begins with a two-week review; they then take two examinations on this material. Those who earn better grades in these examinations may enroll in the second-semester course immediately; they carry out the laboratory work for both courses simultaneously, if this much lab work is required for their majors. Long Beach State College offers for a small number of students an honors section of general chemistry which meets at the same time as the lectures for the regular course, and in which more material is presented. The same examinations are given to both sections, so the better students are not removed from competition with the rest of the class. Students can be shifted hack and forth between sections on the basis of their performance on individual exams. Iowa State University offers a one-quarter course for prospective majors which is designed to introduce them to the major areas of chemistry. It is supposed to keep the big picture in mind, rather than details, in order to help students determine their interest in chemistry as a possible major. Wayne State University avoids the problems inherent in scheduling of lahoratory work from the beginning of lectures in the subject (when the student still knows very little about the laboratory work he is to do) by beginning the separate lahoratory courses in organic and physical chemistry with the second semester of the corresponding lecture courses. A number of the institutions which train only science or engineering majors reported curricular innovations which depend largely upon their prior selection of students with backgrounds and aptitudes for work in the sciences. Harvey Mudd College requires four semesters of hoth mathematics and physics and three of chemistry of all students during their first two years. Majors are selected during the sophomore year. The department's competitive position (for majors) is enhanced by offeringone semester of general chemistry, followed by two of physical (based upon Moore's textbook) as the work of these three terms. Case Institute has reorganized its curriculum so that two semesters of work on descriptive valence theory and covalent compounds, and ionic bonding, reactions, and structures are followed in the sophomore and junior years by four semesters of physical chemistry, two of organic, and two of advanced inorganic chemistry. Laboratory training in quantitative techniques accompanies the physical chemistry laboratories. At Illinois Institute of Technology, the first-year course surveys concepts of structure as applied to atoms, molecules, and nuclei, and the descriptive chemistry of the elements. I n the sophomore year, all students a t the Institute take one semester of thermodynamics. Volume 42, Number 10, October 1965
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Chemistry majors take a second semester (devoted largely to solution thermodynamics) and also two semesters of organic chemistry. The distinguishing feature of all these programs is that they move a large part of the traditional material of the chemistry major into the first few years of the program. This leaves the senior year free for advanced course work and a heavy student research program. Responses from many of the liberal arts colleges reflected concern with the effects the technical school programs may have on the expectations of graduate schools. It becomes increasingly difficult to meet what these colleges regard as the minimum demands of a liberal education and a t the same time provide a competitive undergraduate science major. Other schools commented on the rigidity of professional (read medical) school requirements, and the effects of their requirements in inhibiting curricular innovation. A number of schools-including Florida Presbyterian, Gustavus Adolphus, and Macalester Collegesare operating on a 15-4-15 week schedule. The fourweek term is used in various ways, which may include student tours or special courses (one mentioned was in molecular spectroscopy) for students in the fimt three years. Senior science majors generally use this term for their senior research projects. This scheme appears to offer some advantages in terms of concentrated laboratory work, and consequent increased accomplishment. An interesting side issue is that the use of the term "curricular experiments" (which was carried over from an earlier brief questionnaire of the Advisory Council on College Chemistry) was quite a red herring to many of those who responded to the questionnaire. They quite rightly pointed out that one cannot carry out experiments on curricula in the same rigorously controlled manner that is expected in scientific work.
528 / Journol of Chemical Education
Exchange of Information
There appears to be widespread interest in data on the undergraduate chemistry curriculum, both within the American Chemical Society and from outside organizations. There is considerable feeling that the Division of Chemical Education should maintain some periodic check on curricula during this period of rapid evolution. I t is not clear how this information might be used. I n order to increase the usefulness of such data in the future, the author would appreciate hearing from those individuals or organizations which might have use for data which could be obtained in this way. If the questionnaire results are stored on punch cards, it is relatively easy to retrieve information from them by using the computer. The author cannot undertake to do this in response to all inquiries, but it would be very useful to know what sorts of information could be of value to other organizations and in what form they would be most useful. The design of any future survey could then be modified to take these requirements into account. It seems clear that exchanges of information on changes in the curriculum are of value to schools which plan (or have already made) such changes. The experiences of others form a useful basis for one's own plans. There is some danger of yielding to the temptation to follow the current fads in making these changes. For example, it now appears to be a matter of gamesmanship to place material from the traditional physical chemistry course in the freshman year. Clearly some change in this direction is dictated by the improvement in training of incoming students. It is equally clear, however, that many high school graduates still lack the background to handle this material successfully. Programs in individual schools must still be tailored to the needs of the student body.
