LAST month we expressed some opinions endorsing the efforts of chemical educators who are trying other than the conventional organization of courses. This month we should like to emphasize a variation of the same theme. This is the equally commendable effort to modernize the undergraduate curriculum by the less drastic but undeniably effective device of altering the sequence of courses. Grinnell College (Grinnell, Iowa) has for years made a reputation among liberal arts colleges as a baccalaureate origin of leaders in the chemical profession. Since 1954 the chemistry department has abandoned the traditional sequence of year courses: (general, analytical, organic, and physical) in favor of the following: Qualitative analysis is offered during the second semester of tbe freshman year a8 a part of both the general and the inorgainr chemistry courses. A threelecture, two-lebo~.ator~,-per-neek course in organic follows in the sophomore yeas. (Phy~icsis taken concurrently.) In the first semester of the junior year there is s, course in gravimetric and volumetric analysis. This is followed in the second semester hy s.course in which the lectures embody the outlines of an elementary course in physical cbemistry, accompanied by laboratory work in instrumental analysin
first $emester a n d a trvo &our lecture'and readingcourse in 'advanced inorganic chemistry the second.
In addition to this offering of 38 semester credits, chemistry majors are urged to participate in an extensive program of undergraduate research and are required to pass senior comprehensive examinations. Professor William C. Oelke, under whose chairmanship the Grinnell faculty has developed this curriculum, enthusiastically endorses their "experiment" and comments as follows: At first there was some anxiety over the ability of second year students to do well in a substsntisl organic oourse. In practice, we find that sophomores are able to carry as rigorous a course in organic as did juniors. Student attrition in t h e organic course during the first semester of the sophomore year has been no greater than that experienced during the years when semimicro qualitative analysis was the sophomore course....The experience
in organic chemistry i~ usually a n interesting one, and we feel this is a predisposing factor influencing students to choose a major in chemistry or other science rather than to shift into some nonscientific field at the middle or end of the sophomore year. At Grinnell many of the chemistry students carry on nndec graduate research both during the school year and during the summer months under special grants. Putting organic chemist,ry in the sophomore year allows students to begin research in this field as early as the summer between the sophomore and junior years. Similarly, the semester of elementary physical chemistry and instrumental analysis in the junior year gives students the start in knowledge and techniques which is almost necessary in or allied fields. Our new order bo do senior research in nhvsical . curriculum h.ti ilctinitc~ly*tirnulare.l uodrrgrndunw wt,nr t ~ ul ~ m zd e~ ~ ~ l , m ~ j o r . \I'd much more interesting. A previous semester of elementary physical chemistry allows the senior physical chemistry course t o move faster and t o be taught more rigorously. While there is some repetition, it is in areas where repetition is usually needed for thorough mastery, and there is enough stimulation in the advanced presentation t o keep up the interest. Also the l a b o r s tory is free of routine instrumental experiments ~ u e has mensurements of physical properties and electrometrie titrations whiah are covered in the instrumental analysis. This allows time for more real experiment.8.
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It would not be appropriate for this page to urge the adoption of any "ideal" curriculun~. Local requirements, facilities, personnel, and points of view make i t impossible to transplant successfully a thriving scheme from one campus to another. Universities with their greater curricular flexibility have fewer problems than do colleges with their limited staffs and facilities. For example, pre-medics must be trained in the same classes with the future chemistry Ph.D1s. (The Grinnell staff feel their plan solves this problem most satisfactorily.) Probably no plan is unique any more than i t is perfect. This plan may have been tried and further modified in some other school. What we applaud wholeheartedly is the lack of complacency which led a faculty to try to do their job in a different way. The chances are that any new plan will be an improvement because of the critical evaluation which preceded its development. Chemistry is an experimental science; its teaching deserves to be.
