Chemical Education Today
Report: ACS Division of Chemical Education
Symposium on Systemic Reform in Chemistry
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by Arlene Russell Although the Division of Undergraduate Education at NSF has undergone a shift in program emphasis, it has retained the Adapt and Adopt Program Initiative, which seeks to broaden the dissemination of the five Systemic Reform Initiatives that are currently being funded by NSF (http://www.ehr.nsf.gov/EHR/DUE). The newest of the initiatives, Molecular Science: Network Deliverable Curricula, based at UCLA, is developing a large set of databases that will allow students to explore data in structured tasks before they are presented with theory. Once the foundations are laid, students are challenged with using the data and concepts to solve applications taken from real problems in “pure” Chemistry, Life Science, Environmental Science, or Material Science. Collaboration and communication are key components of all the assignments. See http://www.nslc.ucla.edu/MolSci. ChemLinks, based at Beloit, and the Modular Chemistry Consortium, centered at Berkeley, have joined forces to develop a modular approach to teaching the first two years of chemistry. Each module, which covers concepts typically taught in 3–4-week periods, begins with a relevant question. The topic is introduced and the stage is set in the first session. In subsequent sessions—which include labs, the use of multimedia resources, writing, and collaboration—students explore various aspects of the question in depth, culminating in a closing session that makes the link back to the original question. John Wiley and Sons will publish the new curricular materials. See http://mc2.cchem. berkeley.edu and http://chemlinks. beloit.edu. Workshop Chemistry, emanating from the City College of New York, is creating processes to develop communities of learners, particularly among high-risk students. Groups of 6–8 students participate in weekly workshops conducted by peer student-leaders. Evaluation results indicate an improvement in retention, in grades,
in autonomy of learning, and in attitudes towards the courses. The most gains occur when the leaders are well trained to turn responsibility for learning over to the students, and to work as guides, not lecturers. The program has been shown to be effective in diverse types of institutions: inner city community colleges, small private colleges with an older student body, and large research institutions. See http://www.sci.ccny.cuny.edu/~chemwksp/. The New Traditions vision changes faculty-centered instruction into student-centered learning. An integrated set of courses is being developed that focuses on active learning techniques. Students become involved in learning communities in which students with similar interests have their courses clustered; they share in inquiry-based openended labs and in using information technology and computer tools. More than 30 documents have been produced to use Mathcad in Physical Chemistry courses. Concept Tests are being developed to make lectures more interactive and new conceptual exams are being used to evaluate students’ science understanding rather than their recall of facts. New Traditions has inspired the revision of the textbook The Chemical World. See http://genchem.chem. wisc.edu/newtrad/. Arlene Russell is in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, 90095;
[email protected].
W A more extensive description of the NSF Systemic Reform Projects Symposium appears on JCE Online at http:// jchemed.chem.wisc.edu/.
