Robert C. Brasted
University of Minnesota Minneapolis
The General Chemistry Program at the University of Minnesota
The school of Chemistry, as part of the Institute of Technology at Minnesota, has devoted considerable energy, funds, and a considerable share of administrative attention to the development of a general chemistry program. These new courses seem to he serving the purpose for which they are intendedthe establishment of a factual and solid basis for later courses in chemistry as well as instrnction that will teach as much of science and the scientific method for the terminal student as time will permit. We feel that this program is of sufficientimportance that a single staff member should he responsible for its development and administration. The duties of the administrator encompass far more than a routine assignment of assistants to the proper laboratories, class scheduling, and aspects of lahoratory operation. In addition, direction of graduate work, graduate course instruction and usual committee duties, the proper design of central chemistry lecture courses (content, level, and method of presentation), correlation of lecture sections, level of instruction in both lecture and laboratory, discussion of policy on advanced standing, training of assistants, physical plant design, stock and supply, and joint operation insofar as content is concerned with the other divisions of chemistry are included in his "job description." If we have a plan or program that is effective, it is because the staff is dedicated to instruction in the student's early college years. The members of the division are imaginative graduate-level instructors and productive research persons. I feel strongly that all of these are prerequisites to producing good general chemistry instruction. There is no program that is any better than its staff; neither is a program a substitute for a staff. To this end, the total course load per staff member is kept to a maximum of four per year, with fewer than four possible in exceptional cases. This load confers a combination of a General Chemistry sequence and a graduate-level course in the field of interest of the staff member. It is now some six years since Professor Hugus of our department reported before a similar ACS Symposium on the Chemistry Curricula at the University of Minnesota.' At that time major revisions were made in the first year program as well as in the overall curricula. There have been a series of changes year by year while adhering to the major plan. If the success of the rePresented its a part of the Symposium on Recent Trends in Undergraduate Curricula before the Division of Chemical Education at the 145th Meeting of the American Chemical Society, New York, N. Y., September, 1963.
' Hncus, Z Z., JR.,THIS JOURNAL, 35, 171 (1958).
vision is judged upon the number of students entering chemistry as a major field or being prepared for other professional careers, then we feel that progress has been made. A summary of the three basic courses offered in the general program folloms. All the sequences but the last carry the same name: "Principles of Chemistry." In none of the course titles do the names "Inorganic," "General Inorganic," or "Freshman" appear. Chemistrv Seauencer Course number 4 , 5 , 6 (General purpose) 14, 15, 16 (Engineers) 24.25.26 (Chemistsand
Chem. ~ n g . ) Natural Science 5
Meee ing days
Reeit Lab (class hours)
Credit (quarter creditg)
4 4
1 1
3 3
5 4
4
1
3
5 3
3
For those who may feel that there are too many programs and that a single presentation should suffice, let me say that there have been in the past as many as thirty courses, each supposedly different. Each curriculum, each college, each department apparently did not want its students competing with students of any other department, college, or curriculum. Also each of these desired a separate course for students with and without high school chemistry as a background. Needless to say, common sense, staff, and time limitations have brought about the consolidation and the changes now discussed. The largest group of students are serviced by the sequence General Chemistry 4, 5, and 6. Four or five sections of this course, varying in size from 135 to 320, are initiated in the fall. All students in any one lecture section must be in the same laboratory. There are both advantages and disadvantages to such an arrangement. We feel that a high degree of homogeneity and personalized instruction is possible even though there is some loss in flexibility in registration. Trailer sections are initiated in the winter and spring quarters to spread the student load over the year. The largest number of students in General Chemistry 4 is furnished by the College of Liberal Arts, including those students in the preprofessional areas of medicine, dentistry, medical technology, to some extent nursing. Colleges of Agriculture, Forestry, Home Economics, Veterinary Medicine, Pharmacy also contribute. Transfer of credit is possible from 4 to 24 or 14 to 24 (the latter being the course for the major) by petition for students who decide on a chemistry major even though not registered initially in the major course. Volume 41, Number
3, Morch 1964
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An original prerequisite of one year of algebra for General Chemistry 4 appears to be unrealistic, and we have perhaps been remiss in not recognizing and correcting the situation sooner. Special exams including basic chemistry and arithmetic have been administered in the past to classify special-section students, but with little overall success. Science background in high school (chemistry, physics), number and caliber of mathematics courses have all been correlated to eventual performance in college chemistry. In an effort to identify the students likely to cancel and/or fail the course for reasons of improper training, the scores made by the entering freshman on the American College Testing Program were examined in detail. Each entering freshman must take or have taken this examination (either in high school before entrance or during registration week on arrival). The correlation as seen on the graph between achievement and the predicted ACT grade point in mathematics for over 1000 students was found to be excellent. This
Correlation between American College Testing Program predicted mathemoticr xore and performonce in college generd chemistry at the University of Minnesota.
mathematics score proved to be more valuable than the English or the Natural Science scores. By using as a prerequisite for entrance to General Chemistry 4 an ACT predicted mathematics score of 1.9, a majority of the early cancellations may be eliminated without disturbing the C range to any extent or touching the A and B categories. This prerequisite would result in a saving in teachmg assistants time, laboratory space allocation, as well as a great deal of heartbreak and lost time on the part of the student with a poor prognosis of passing or even staying in the course. We recognize that new responsibilities will be placed on the staff this next year because of a more select student body. Those students not fulfilling this prerequisite must pass a specially designed algebra course and may then enter the winter quarter trailer section, essentially without loss of time in the completion of the chemistry requirement. On the assumption that any student on any given day may perform marginally on national tests, college advisors are given some freedom in enforcement. The results on some one thousand students after one quarter performance in 1963 gave a failure rate of about 5y0 with this screening. There is still a cancellation rate of approximately 15%. Both figures are lower than in past years, but still disturbingly high. 2 B-TED, R. C., T A ~ BJOURNAL, 34, 562 (1957). Details of this correlation as well as course administration and content may be obtained by oommunication with the author.
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The first meeting of the class is used in part to obtain special data on each student. We are concerned that we do not stifle a student with a superior background by repetition. Neither do we wish to present a course a t too accelerated or too sophisticated a pace to students with a normal or minimum background. Presently we find only a very small fraction of our students in any of our general chemistry courses with training in CHEM Study or CBA. Students with such backgrounds by satisfying, through an examination graded by a three man committee, their proficiency in the material of any one or all of our general chemistry courses, are eligible for advanced standing. Increasing numbers of students are presenting advanced standing examination scores for evaluation. I t is fair to say that some have shown a satisfactory background in the material of the first quarter. However, we have not in general been satisfied with their mastery of kinetics of chemical reactions, quantitative application of equilibrium, and general aspects solution chemistry-that material which is basic to the second and third quarters of study. The general chemistry sequence 14, 15, was noted as part of the offering and a requirement for the engineers (other than chemical). The students registering for this course are sophomores in the Institute of Technology. These students have had in high school almost without exception chemistry, physics, and four years of high school mathematics. I n college as freshmen, they have had a year of physics and mathematics, including integral calculus. It is obvious that we are able to present to these students more sophisticated material than would he given to the General Chemistly 4 students. We feel entirely justified in separating the engineering students from the latter group and in fact from the chemistry major who takes his first college chemistry course as a freshman. The problem work in the engineering sequence (14 and 15) includes the mathematics necessary to solve rate problems. Probability functions can be handled more quantitatively than in General Chemistry 4, and structure is treated more mathematically. A recent text for better trained students is used. It may be added that in this sequence cancellations and failures are not a serious problem. The lecture, recitation, and laboratory time factors are identical to those of General Chemistry 4. The third quarter in this sequence (numbered as 16) is actually not presented by the general chemistry staff but by members of the organic division. The material of both lecture and laboratory might be broadly classed as industrial organic chemistry and is an elective for the engineer. The third of our regularly designed courses is that for' the chemistry major. It carries the number sequence 24,25, and 26. The enrollment in General Chemistry 24 is 180-200. These students are predominantly de-I clared chemistry and chemical engineering majors. As with the engineers virtually all these students will have had a full course of instruction in high school mathematics and science. The laboratory is approximately six hours per week, with recitation and four hours of lecture as in the other sequences. Every effort is made to give the student as wide a latitude in experimental work as possible. I n the second and third quarters the students use many formal quantitative techniques.
About five years ago an honors section was established for the chemistry major. The method of assignment to this section was initially based upon a pretest in mathematics. Originally, the only difference between the honors section and the normal chemistry major section was in the laboratory work. Considerable modifications in both respects, lecture and laboratory, are now in effect. The honors program does not now begin until the second quarter (General Chemistry 25H). We expect that many of the inequalities in high school background by this time have been leveled out. Students with A and high B performance from the first quarter are invited to participate. Nearly all of those chosen will finish the course with grades of A or B. It is possible for the student to return to the normal chemistry major conrse if he so desires. The lecture material for two quarters is definitely physically oriented with strong emphasis on thermodynamics, structure, and bonding. A proper amount of a graduate assistant's time is allowed for detailed problem grading and closely supervised laboratory work.' Within the past three years the department has assumed a share (with physics and geology) in the administration of an interdisciplinary course primarily for the Liberal Arts College student. Each disciplme conducts a one quarter course. Interdepartmental staff consultation permits consolidation and intenveaving of content. Two quartem must be completed if credit is to be awarded. Chemistry uses the theme, "Structure of Matter," and makes no effort to gloss over a year of general chemistry in a single quarter. The enrollment has grown from a few hundred to nearly a thousand, understandably taxing our laboratory and lecture facilities. One of our greatest challenges will be to maintain the identity of the student while still operating in lecture sections of 200-300. Special Features
Training Assistants. An indoctrination and instructional program for new teaching assistants is now in operation. Each year some 45 new teaching assistants come to the department of chemistry. Many of these graduate students will assist in the general chemistry program along with a cadre of experienced assistants to lend continuity. Each assistant represents a somewhat different philosophy of instruction. All will have different attitudes, interest, experience, and aptitude for teaching. We fully appreciate that our program is strongly dependent upon the effectiveness of our teaching assistants. To aid in an easier transition from student to teacher this special course of instruction is offered. The assistants are given instruction in stockroom procedure, mechanics of closed circuit television, refresher lecture material covering certain of the more or less nontraditional topics. Obviously we expect the assistant to attend the regular lecture in the course in which he assists. Among the subjects discussed by the staff are nuclear and electron structure, bonding and molecular structure, quantum chemistry, kinetics, thermodynamics, electrochemistry, redox systematics, and some aspects of stoichiometry. There is also a schedule of experiments to be performed which will 'BENT,H., THIS JOURNAL, 39,491 (1962).
allow the assistant to carry these out using the desk equipment, under conditions identical to those used by the freshman. The unknowns are performed to give the assistant a chance to identify more intelligently sources of error by the student. Safety. A special instructional program is given all assistants in laboratory safety and first aid. The Department of Environmental Health and the Health Service conduct this one-credit course. Meetings are held once a weekin the first quarter for six weeks. The handling of noxious gases, fire prevention, design of hoods, first aid equipment, disposal of waste chemicals and radioactive materials are typical topics included in the syllabus. Direct Reading Balances. A cooperative administration has, over several years, allocated sufficient funds to permit equipping all general chemistry laboratories Mettler H-4 (milligram) balances. Since some 420 students may meet on a given afternoon, the amount of money needed is understandably large. Although instruction is given on all of the usual balances found in the chemistry laboratory, the student performs his analytical work on the H 4 . The saving in time has permitted us to use more meaningful and instructive experiments, all involving quantitative techniques and an unknown. It should be mentioned that a maintenance contract is essential for this number of balances, a budget item of some consequence. Each student is assessed a small sum to aid in this maintenance. Closed Circuit T V . We are currently in the third year of operating an instructional program to large numbers of students using closed circuit television. A typical lecture section of 320 students is divided into the usual recitation sections of 25 students each under the supervision of a graduate teaching assistant. The first part of the normal recitation period is televised by the regular lecturer of the section. Each class is in a monitor room equipped with two 23-in. sets and a "talk back" or intercom system. With present facilities we could transmit to about 2000 students. The time is used to introduce laboratory techniques pertinent to the experiment for the day, to demonstrate techniques of general applicability, to carry out demonstrations which may better be performed on TV than in large lecture rooms, to illustrate safety factors, to elaborate on lecture material for problem solving which might receive questionable treatment by the teaching assistants, or if so desired to present a full hour of lecture. Perhaps it is best, in summary, to state that anything may be presented that can better be done through the medium of TV than by other procedures. We are using video tapes when multiple sections are involved, overlays and superposition to better define a reaction taking place, and split screen technique. Many of the staff are being introduced to the medium, so it is more than a possibility that it will he expedient to televise to outlying campuses and branches of the university. We have made some extensive evaluation studies of our own effortto date--the results of which might be the subject of an independent publication. The author cannot yet whole-heartedly subscribe t o the presentation of the entire lecture program by closed circuit TV. Undergraduate Assistants. An important part of our instructional program has been the judicious use of Volume 41, Number 3, March 1964
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undergraduates. It is mentioned t o point out the fact that good undergraduates can function most effectively. I fully realize that this move does not make us a t all unique. The large university is, in my opinion, not using all of its "chemical potential" if the good undergraduate is not used. By placing undergraduates in duties such as grading examinations, proctoring, aiding in the natural science sequence, solution preparation and stockroom help, it has been possible to use the graduate assistants' time more effectively. The uudergraduate chemistry major--often chosen from the honors section-is made to feel very much a part of the department. With this additional help in grading, it is possible t o examine even the largest sections subjectively and, if desired, frequently. Regular Problem Assignments. A partial solution t o a difficult phase of instruction for large numbers of students has been found in the grading of weekly prohlem assignment. All of the general chemistry courses have a strong basis in prohlem solving. The detailed grading of these problem sets would require more time than is currently available from the present junior staff. An exception is the honors course which is well-staffed for problem grading. The student keeps a prohlem notebook, working problems each week from assignments made from a course syllabus. In the laboratory the teaching assistant, as part of his daily personal interview with the student a t his laboratory bench, examines the problem notebook. An estimate can be made as t o the quality of work done, with, of course, the final proof of this phase of work being determined by the student's ability to work problems in the hi-weekly hour examination and the weekly ten-minute quiz. Tutorial Work. We cannot and do not turn our hack upon the student with the marginal preparation and perhaps marginal ability. (The usual state university must accept almost any student graduating from high
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school.) It is our feeling that effort should be placed on helping such students with whatever means we have a t our disposal. We hope that such help is not a t the expense of the good and superior students. A portion of the assisting time of our best teaching assistants is used in special tutorial sessions distributed throughout the week a t hours most likely to be useful to the student. These sessions are designed to aid in problem solving and in supplementing lecture material that cannot be fully discussed in the recitation sections. Obviously the tutors are not expected to expand the normal lecture. The weekly problem assignments supposedly completed a t the time of the laboratory meeting can then be discussed with tutors. Each teaching assistant also establishes an office hour during the week. For a class of 250-300 students, then, there will be a total of some 18 hours during the week when special help can be received. That this phase of the program is not as successful as it might be is evident, since we have had still far too many cancellations early in the course. In fairness to our efforts it is true that those cancelling often do not take advantage of the opportunities provided. I t is difficult t o know whether we are dealing with simple human nature or something more basic in our teaching philosophy. Liaison with Secondary Schools. The effectiveness of the general program is closely connected with the support and cooperation with the secondary school teachers of Minnesota. As an outgrowth of certain of our Summer Institutes there was formed some years ago an unofficial hut effective Twii City Association of High School and College Teachers. By way of the deliberations of this group there is 'now a far better understanding of course content and the problems of transition from high school to college, not only pertinent to the University of Minnesota but for the other universities and colleges in the area.
