Chemical Education Today edited by
Association Report: 2YC3
Ann Cartwright
Integrating the General Chemistry and General Biology Curriculum
San Jacinto College, Central Campus Division of Science & Mathematics Pasadena, TX 77501-2007
by José C. Barreto
My Teaching Experiences
Laboratory Examples
You might wonder why I, a faculty member in a university and not someone from a community college, am writing this 2YC3 report. The answer is straightforward. I recently spent several years as a faculty member at Tomball Community College in Texas, where I taught Bio I (introductory general biology for science majors) and Chem I (introductory general chemistry for science majors). I now teach Cell Biology and Organic Chemistry in a university, and I find that these classes have benefitted greatly from my experiences at Tomball. At Tomball I developed an appreciation of how closely related Bio I and Chem I have become. Even a casual glance at the contents of several Bio I and Chem I textbooks will show a close relationship. Yet in my experience, chemistry and biology faculty teach in their own separate worlds, rarely meeting and somewhat oblivious to the connections that can be made between these two courses. I strongly urge those who teach introductory chemistry to borrow a standard biology text from a biology colleague. Engage the colleague in a conversation about how the two classes might be integrated. Chemists may be surprised that ionic bonding, covalent bonding, moles, solution stoichiometry, pH, hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity, and thermochemistry are all dealt with in the first few weeks of biology class. As a consequence, I believe that there exists a wonderful opportunity to integrate Chem I and Bio I at the laboratory level.
I think it could be a simple matter to integrate the first 4–6 weeks of the two courses by having the students begin an experiment in chemistry class, one that stresses chemical principles, and continue it during that same week as an experiment in biology class. The biology lab would then stress the application to biomolecules of a recently learned chemical principle. Here are some very brief examples. •
A solubility lab in chemistry can lead to a discovery by students that carbonate and phosphate metal salts are mostly insoluble in water (except under acidic conditions). Solubility principles can then be extended in the biology lab to deal with the solubility of the calcium carbonates and calcium phosphates in seashells, bones, and teeth, under conditions of varying pH.
•
Integrating the topics of electronegativity, Lewis dot diagrams, VSEPR, and modeling in a chemistry “paper lab” can be a lead-in to an understanding of dipole moment. This concept can then be immediately followed by a biology lab based on solute polarity. Students can discover that lipids will not dissolve in water and detergent molecules create micelles, which can dissolve lipids, and that phospholipids will spontaneously form bilayer membranes.
Talk to your biology colleague. Design some labs together that can be closely linked. Your introductory science students will benefit enormously. José C. Barreto is in the Division of Natural Science and Mathematics, Florida Gulf Coast University, 10501 FGCU Boulevard, Fort Myers, FL 33965;
[email protected].
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Journal of Chemical Education • Vol. 77 No. 12 December 2000 • JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu
