Chemical Education Today edited by
Association Reports: CPT
F. Fleming Crim University of Wisconsin–Madison Madison, WI 53706
Undergraduate Chemistry Education Report of an ACS Presidential Symposium1 by William F. Polik
The ACS Presidential Symposium, Envisioning Undergraduate Chemistry Education in 2015, was organized by the ACS Committee on Professional Training (CPT) and co-sponsored by the Division of Chemical Education (DivCHED) and the Society Committee on Education (SOCED) in response to ACS President William F. Carroll’s challenge to envision the chemistry enterprise in 2015 in order to understand, plan for, and make the most of change (1). Carroll opened the symposium by noting that change is occurring both in the chemistry profession and in education. CPT Vice Chair William F. Polik commented that in order to address these changes, CPT has begun a major effort to revise the ACS Guidelines for approval of undergraduate chemistry programs (2–4). The first three speakers described approaches in chemistry education that are known to be effective but are not yet widely implemented. Marye Anne Fox, chancellor of the University of California, San Diego, spoke on What a 2015 Chemistry Graduate Should Know. Beyond technical expertise, Fox stated that chemists need to collaborate in teams, possess communication skills, be comfortable with risk-taking, and have problem-solving skills. In addition, she stressed that “chemists are citizens of the nation and of the world”, and must therefore apply their professional abilities to solve pressing societal and global challenges. Isiah M. Warner, Louisiana State University, spoke on Increasing Diversity among Chemistry Students and ACS-Approved Programs. To increase diversity, Warner recommends promoting academic success through mentoring, education, and research. Warner emphasized the need for more diverse role models at all levels, including high school students, undergraduate majors, graduate students, and faculty. Warner also highlighted the importance of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) as a source of African-American undergraduate chemistry majors and graduate students. Eileen L. Lewis, Cañada Community College and University of California, Berkeley, spoke on Research on Teaching Approaches That Improve Student Learning. Lewis encouraged moving from a teacher-centered classroom to a student-centered classroom. She emphasized the importance of students’ past experiences and preconceptions to the learning process as well as the need to carefully structure students’ experiences to develop understanding. Lewis also summarized the rich set of teaching materials produced by the NSF Systemic Changes in the Undergraduate Chemistry Curriculum Initiatives (5). A novel format of this symposium was the inclusion of 30-minute sessions for small group discussion and reporting out by the audience. These sessions allowed the audience to share their knowledge and experience with each other, and they gave a voice to a much wider variety of opinions than are typically expressed in question-and-answer or panel discussion seswww.JCE.DivCHED.org
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sions. More than 70 audiA novel format was the ence members discussed and reported out on variinclusion of 30-minute ous strategies for effective education of undergradusessions for small group ate chemistry students that are known to work. Some discussion and reporting audience comments included support for estabout by the audience. lishing student mentoring and support systems, incorporating student feedback into the classroom through written comments on index cards or electronic response systems, and giving students the opportunity to teach each other. The next three speakers highlighted several innovative ways in which chemistry education is changing. Gabriela C. Weaver, Purdue University, spoke on Creating Research Experiences for the Undergraduate Chemistry Curriculum. Weaver described the NSF-funded Center for Authentic Science Practice in Education (CASPiE), which is developing modules for first- and second-year chemistry courses in which students contribute to ongoing research projects directed by academic principal investigators (6). This approach provides students an experience to think like scientists, carry out original experiments, and be part of the chemical research process within their normal laboratory courses. G. Sitta Sittampalam, Eli Lilly and Co., spoke on Multi-Disciplinary Approaches to Chemistry Education. According to Sittampalam, when industry trains employees about making chemical measurements, that education is not divided along the lines of conventional academic disciplines—rather, the training follows a general process of understanding the problem, designing and implementing experiments, and analyzing the results to draw conclusions. In particular, Sittampalam noted, exposure to chemometrics and statistical tools is important for understanding complex measurement problems involving multiple interacting factors. Chemists work on interdisciplinary problems in industry, said Sittampalam, and students who have undergraduate research experience are particularly well-prepared to succeed in an industrial laboratory setting. Arthur B. Ellis, Director of the Division of Chemistry at the National Science Foundation, spoke on Technology and Cyberinfrastructure in Chemistry. Ellis described how computer technology could be used to couple research and teaching. Examples of NSF-funded projects include databases to track emerging scientific concepts, cyber-tools to enable remote control of highend instrumentation, and visualization technology to enhance data analysis and student understanding (7). The symposium concluded with a second small group discussion and reporting out session by the audience on the
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Chemical Education Today
Association Reports: CPT topic, Where We Want To Go in the next decade to educate undergraduate students. Suggestions included more integration of chemistry concepts across the curriculum, informing teachers of research on effective pedagogy, and using technology to enhance collaborative experiences. In closing remarks, Polik emphasized that CPT is seeking broad community input during the ACS guidelines revision process and that comments of the symposium speakers and audience were very informative on how to more effectively train chemists in the future.
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Note 1. This report is based on the Presidential symposium, “Envisioning Undergraduate Chemistry Education in 2015”, that took place at the 230th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in Washington, DC, August 28–September 1, 2005.
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Literature Cited 1. Carroll, William F. Jr. Chem. Eng. News 2005, 83, (1) 2–4. 2. The publication, Undergraduate Professional Education in Chemistry: Guidelines and Evaluation Procedures (known as the ACS
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Guidelines), is available online from the CPT homepage on the ACS Web site (http://www.chemistry.org) or as hard copy upon request from CPT by sending an email message to
[email protected]. Crim, F. Fleming; Polik, William F. J. Chem. Educ. 2004, 81, 1695–1696. Chem. Eng. News 2005, 83, (17) 42. Information about each of the NSF-supported curriculum initiatives may be found at their respective Web sites: ChemLinks, http://chemlinks.beloit.edu/; Modular Chem Consortium, http://mc2.cchem.berkeley.edu/; Molecular Science, http://www.molsci.ucla.edu/; New Traditions, http:// newtraditions.chem.wisc.edu/; Peer Led Teaching and Learning, http://www.sci.ccny.cuny.edu/~chemwksp/index.html (all sites accessed Oct 2005). More information about the Center for Authentic Science Practice in Education is at http://www.purdue.edu/dp/caspie/ (accessed Oct 2005). See information about Cyber-Enabled Chemistry at http:// www.nsf.gov/chem/cyber/ (accessed Oct 2005).
William F. Polik, Vice-Chair of the ACS Committee on Professional Training, is in the Department of Chemistry, Hope College, Holland, MI 49423;
[email protected].
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