Albert E. Finholt St. Olaf College Northfield, Minnesota 55057
General Chemistry in Liberal Arts Colleges
The nature o f a liberal arts curriculum places an emphasis on interrelationships, integration and nonmaterial goals. For science majors this helps to maintain a proper sense o f perspective and humility ..
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General chemistry in a liberal arts college is not radically different from general chemistry in a university or a two-year college. We all face most of the issues described by David Brooks ( I ) in his recent excellent review articles. Each educational setting, however, has its own advantages and disadvantages and an accompanying set of problems and solutions. We share many programs and similarities hut it may he of benefit also to look at our differences. We often gain hy borrowing ideas from the very points a t which we differ. The two most im~ortanteducational factors in a liberal arts college are the breadth of the intellectual goals and the nature of the student-faculty relationship. Science majors and nonscience majors are made aware that science and technology are onlv one Dart of mankind's needs and facultv and students on a c~llegecampusconstantly encounter other needs and other disci~lines.The nature of a liberal arts curriculum daces an emphasis on interrelationships, integration, and no" material goals. For science maiors this helps to maintain a proper sense bf perspective and humility to the point where general chemistry instructors sometimes must work to see that chemistry receives a proper measure of academic recognitinn. Part of the philosophy of educarion ofthe fcwr year institution rests on the principle that a one-to-me studenr-faculty relaticmshin is essential. The sturlent shw~ldsee rhe same face in the classroom, the laboratory, and the help session. If the instructor is a eood teacher and a eood scientist this is the best possible kindbf education. At every stage of the learning Drocess there is direct contact with the instructor who ~ l a n s and organizes course material and who is aware of all of the nuances in understanding a difficult concent. Usuallv the instructor has chosen to w&k where teaching i's a prim& part of hislher job. The price paid in professorial time, and subsequently in tuition, is great but the results can be striking. In this kind of a setting one can expect to find the kind of imaginative teaching proposed by Jay Young many years ago in his open-ended laboratorv (2). As we enter an era of lower college enrollments, the liberal arts colleges face a financial crunch which has already brought severe problems. The ideal state of dedicated teaching in a n atmosphere of inquiry and curiosity fades as staffs and budgets are cut. General chemistry classes and laboratories have been increased in size a t some schools until the advantages mentioned above have been lost. At some point many liberal arts colleges will have to explore teaching procedures and methods which are foreien to them. We will need to draw on the accumulated wisdom of universities and community colleees. External Dressure mav force aeater homoeeneitv in ow national educakonal system thanany of us w&ld choose to have.
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Chemistry Curricula in Liberal Arts Colleges In the United States the undergraduate curriculum of chemistry departments is remarkably uniform. We change but 616 1 Jourml of Chemical Education
we seem to change together. One has only to examine a dozen freshman texts to see how evolution follows the same path. In recent years we have seen an expansion of the topical chemistry pages and a cutting hack of physical chemistry. This change has often been referred to as a reawakening to the importance of descriptive chemistry as against an overweighting of the effort spent on theory. Liheral art.s colleges have been slow to move in this direction, hut we have shared in the pros and cons of the debate. P e r h a ~ it s is well to resister a word of caution on the use of the words "descriptive ccemistry" or "theory" as we give vent to our personal prejudices on curricular topics. "Descriptive chemistry" may mean learning a set of prnperties and equations, and "theow" mav mean auantum mechanics or absolute reaction rate theory but either phrase may mean almost anything between the most factual information and the most. mathekatical language. How do we classify the qualitative atomic and molecular models bv which we describe a reaction mechanism? Labels may provide unnecessary controversy. Leonard Nash cautioned us to emphasize "the phenomenal, the qualitative, the empirical" (3). He explicitly warned against "descriptive chemistry" which bores students and teachers, but he also urged us to observe and think more with a little less zeal for counting and calculating. Our chemistry teaching must center around a pictorial language which is different than abstract reasoning or data hut is supported by both. The general chemistry course designed for the science major ~ r o b a b l vis closest to the hearts of most chemistrv teachers becausAe want it to embody the best possible introduction and background for individuals who will use chemistry professionally. Changes in the course have not been dramatic but in the ~ a s 25 t vears there has been a steadv increase in the amount of time devoted to models, concepts, bonding, and mechanisms in contrast to an earlier memorization of equations, properties, and details of industrial processes. When did we shed the last tear as we stopped demanding equations and diagrams of the lead chamber or contact processes? In a constant volume of course-time something had to he squeezed out. The trend toward early teaching of concepts and models probably will continue to be the long term movement in all sciences desvite concentration on an~lications im. oeriodic . .. portant in a particular era. Environment and energy are world issues in which chemistry will be important for many decades to come. We can attract student interest by pointing out where chemistrv has created problems and where it has solved problems. Most liberal a& colleges, however, continue to keep the major courses concentrating on principles with a minor amount of time spent on the role of chemistry in the headline stories of the day. It might he instructive to list thr topics cowred in a firstyear sequenceat Oberlin, which has been a leader for decade$ in chemistry teaching and in the production of professional chemists.
In the minds o f many chemists, the correlation between structure and reaction in organic chemistry and the understandingit makes possible lies at the heart of our science, and should be the philosophical target around which the first year o f teaching should be planned.
Oberlin College General Chemistry semester I I. Stom of Moltor and Stoichiometry states, phases, solutionn, separa-
v. structure-Pmperty corre1otinns of Organic Subslonres ~ ~ ~ groups ~ t iand~atrudures ~ a l
Merhanisms
Predictinns and synth-8
tions Atom.. moleeuln, moles Stoiehiomotry and gar laws
solutions
11. Periodicity and Electronic Strue-
semester 11
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