Redesign in Undergraduate Chemistry Curricula

C. Weldon Mathews

Professor Emeritus and Former Vice Chair

Department of Chemistry

The Ohio State University

Presented at the RISE Conference: Redesign In Science Education Conference

October 20-21, 2000, The Ohio State University and Westerville South High School, Westerville, OH

The Department of Chemistry at The Ohio State University, as one of the ten original departments, has a long and proud history in the education of students at all levels. This includes first-year college students who quake at the prospect of taking their first course in chemistry, other first year students who have had superb training in chemistry in high school, pre-professional undergraduates for whom chemistry will be central to their ultimate career, undergraduate chemistry majors who plan to pursue a career in our science, and Ph.D. candidates who choose to learn their craft from the world-class teachers/researchers on our faculty.

In the present discussion I will focus on our undergraduate classes, especially those at the introductory level, and the ongoing efforts to improve their effectiveness. In doing so, however, it is essential to provide some context for these efforts, both within the department and for the wider world our students will experience.

Departmental Mission. The most recent explicit statement of our mission appears in the Strategic Plan adopted by the faculty in July, 1996, after an extensive review of our program by an external panel of experts in chemistry.

Chemistry plays a central role in helping students to understand a variety of disparate fields, including biology, medicine, agriculture, engineering, pharmacy, and consumer science. The application of these principles to problems outside of chemistry requires that students learn to think, rather than merely memorize a set of facts about chemicals and their reactions. Thus, we are committed to helping our students learn to analyze chemical data, to use these analyses to arrive at logical scientific conclusions, and to extend their critical thinking beyond the chemistry textbooks.

In a typical quarter, approximately 34 faculty members work with about 3500 students at the first-year-level, 1200 students at the second-year-level, 200 undergraduate chemistry majors, 217 graduate students, 40 post doctoral researchers, and a few visiting professors. All of these constitute the target audience of our teaching and learning program in the department. The task would be impossible, of course, without the help of about 57 full-time professional, technical, and clerical associates, as well as a large number of student employees.

Our Faculty: A Culture of Teaching and Research. At Ohio State, we often speak of the synergy between good teaching and good research. The culture of the Department of Chemistry is such that teaching and research are inseparable activities; excellence in both teaching and research is cherished and rewarded. One measure of our excellence is the large number of University-level awards for both teaching and research that have been received by individual faculty in the Department. Finally, the culture in our Department that fosters excellence in teaching and research is evident in an analysis of faculty that have received University awards for both activities. Since the inception of the OSU Distinguished Research/Scholar Award, there have been 12 faculty members University-wide who have received that award and either the Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching or the Arts and Sciences Outstanding Teaching Award. Five of these dual teaching/research award recipients have been from the Department of Chemistry (including the current Department Chair)! No other department at OSU has had more than one such honored faculty member.

Evaluation of Teaching and Mentoring of Junior Faculty. The Department of Chemistry is deeply committed to using student evaluation as an important measure of the effectiveness of our courses. Most student evaluations in chemistry use detailed questionnaires developed in our Department over a period of thirty-five years. These questionnaires have been formulated for each major teaching area in the Department, and are designed to provide the maximum useful feedback to individual faculty members. A large number of faculty in the Department also use the OSU Student Evaluation of Instruction (SEI), contributing to the baseline data needed to make this an effective instrument. Many faculty also seek anonymous written comments from students on teaching aspects that are specific to the given course.

Training and Evaluation of Teaching Associates. The Department enjoys collaboration with about 155 graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) and about 35 undergraduate teaching assistants (SIAs). These students are given orientation programs to help them get started in their teaching support activities in laboratories and recitations. We also have a course offered during the summer, CHEM 701, designed to enhance the teaching skills of new graduate students as they enter our program. Each summer we work with about 70% of the new class of graduate students, involving about 50 students. The GTAs and SIAs work with lecturers and staff on a weekly basis to coordinate their supporting roles in the teaching program. They also get feedback from student evaluation of teaching in the same manner as faculty. Those who are rated highly by students and/or faculty receive small, but cumulative, pay increases.

The Teaching Challenges. The Department must maintain high standards for itself and for its students in order to fulfill the teaching mission and to prepare students for their future careers. Many students view chemistry as one of their more difficult subjects. Moreover, most students in our lower-division courses are taking chemistry only because it is required in their curriculum. Consider, for example, that in 1997 on the Columbus Campus there were about 6100 New First Quarter Freshmen. During that same year, we had a total of about 4100 students take one of the beginning courses in chemistry (101, 121, or H201). Of that 4100 only about 50, on average, will become chemistry majors. Thus our primary challenge in the general chemistry program is to help prepare students for the as-yet-unknown chemistry-related tasks they will face in their future careers and for their role as responsible citizens in an increasingly complex world of technological compromises. This very real world leaves no room for grade inflation.

By its nature, chemistry is an experimental science. Thus, all the 100-level courses in chemistry include an extensive laboratory experience along with the lectures. The same is true of all the 200-level courses, although, for pedagogical reasons, the lecture and laboratory experiences in organic chemistry are taught as separate courses. One of the remarkable challenges in teaching undergraduate chemistry, especially at an institution as large as Ohio State, is to give each student a stimulating laboratory experience. General and Organic Chemistry laboratories depend on an extensive infrastructure of support, including Graduate Teaching Associates (GTAs), undergraduate Student Instructional Assistants (SIAs), full-time staff, laboratory space, and technical services. Both courses also make extensive use of televised pre-laboratory taped instructions, at a considerable expense. A 1998 UTS grant of $89,000 helped upgrade projectors in the 18 laboratories; a $56,000 grant in 1999 is permitting us to update the videotapes and convert them to a digital format for easier editing and for CD/WEB presentations. Upper division laboratory courses in Analytical and Physical Chemistry shift progressively to more independent work by the student, with increasing demands for specialized laboratory equipment and qualified teaching assistants. The importance of the undergraduate laboratory experience is reflected by a special allocation in 1997 from departmental Academic Challenge funds of $500,000 to upgrade and improve equipment in our undergraduate teaching laboratories.

Innovations in Teaching. The Department of Chemistry is constantly striving to implement new innovations in its teaching program. First, because chemistry is a dynamic, constantly changing field, we update lecture material every year to reflect new discoveries and new paradigms in chemistry. We also update laboratory course experiments, trying, whenever possible, to show students the excitement in new discoveries. A good example is provided by the remarkable 1986 discovery of so-called high-temperature superconducting ceramics by scientists working in Switzerland. Within a year of this discovery (which led to a Nobel Prize), undergraduates at Ohio State were making these materials and studying their properties as part of our physical chemistry laboratory course.

Many new innovations in the teaching of chemistry at OSU involve the electronic delivery of teaching and learning materials via the Internet and World Wide Web. In 1995, the department made a dedicated commitment to develop a first-class WEB site, now located at www.chemistry.ohio-state.edu. This site serves as a central location of information about the entire scope of departmental activities. It has also been helpful as a recruiting tool for prospective undergraduate and graduate students. Faculty in the department also have been awarded two UTS grants for $1000 to help develop different learning aspects of this site in general chemistry and in organic chemistry, as well as a BETHA grant for $53,280 to develop state-of-the-art tutorials for chemistry students. The results have generated invited presentations at the inaugural OSU Best Practices Faculty Symposium in May of 1997, to faculty in the College of Nursing, to science faculty at Columbus State Community College, and to the Board of Trustees in 1998. Many faculty and lecturers in the undergraduate program now use resources such as WebCT to distribute information to students on a timely basis, some of which must be restricted to selected audiences.

Resources for Students and Teachers. A faculty that is engaged in and committed to the teaching of chemistry is obviously the most important starting point for a successful teaching program in chemistry. In order to maximize the learning experience for our undergraduate students, the Department of Chemistry has developed a number of enhancements that allow the faculty to reach their maximum teaching effectiveness.

Support Services for Lecturers. For our large-enrollment classes in general chemistry and organic chemistry, the department provides considerable support to assist lecturers with scheduling, record keeping, coordination of teaching assistants, distribution of materials, and the organization and stocking of laboratories. The lecturers also have access to examples of old exams (going back to 1908!), to a collection of test questions suitable for current exams, and to a generous supply of professionally prepared visual aids.

Lecture Demonstration Program. Our Department has a full-time staff member, Ms. Mary Bailey, who, as part of her duties, has developed efficient and dramatic demonstrations that can be performed in lectures, especially in the lower-division undergraduate courses. Some of these demonstrations involve very sophisticated and expensive apparatus that allow students the opportunity to see chemistry come to life before their eyes. Over the last 12 years, Ms. Bailey, with input and guidance from the faculty, has developed a demonstration program for our Department that we believe is as pedagogically useful and aesthetically spectacular as that at any other institution. In course evaluations, our students invariably comment on their enjoyment of the demonstrations, both for their learning value and because they can be flat-out fun! In the 1994-95 academic year, the Department performed approximately 2300 lecture demonstrations at an estimated cost of $16,000 for materials, supplies, and apparatus. In addition, the Department provides GTAs to work with Ms. Bailey in this program.

Learning Resource Center. We know that many students find chemistry a difficult and sometimes intimidating subject; consequently, we have established a number of resources to help them with their encounters. We have a "help room" which is open forty-five hours per week for all general chemistry students. This Center provides an opportunity for students to meet with individual graduate teaching assistants for personalized tutoring. It also provides about twenty computer stations, recently upgraded after ten years with funds from a UTS grant for $56,000, with exercises and questions they can choose and work through at their own pace. Many students are very concerned about the exams; therefore, we also make available copies of several previous mid-term exams that can serve as study examples for content, style, and length of exams.

Electronic and Internet Services. The Department of Chemistry prides itself in keeping up-to-date in technological developments that will have an impact on the effectiveness of our teaching program. Currently, much research chemistry is performed using the Internet, and we have attempted to extend similar services to our students. All our instructors now use email as a means of facilitating discussion among class members and the faculty. Using our own time and resources, we have developed World Wide Web (WWW) home pages for courses that allow students ready access to course materials, such as solutions to homework problems and sample examinations. We have a number our GTAs who have developed strong interests in the development of these new resources; they enjoy learning more about the WWW and about HTML programming, and the experience they gain enhances their skills and marketability.

During Spring, 1995, a group of interested faculty and staff initiated a program designed to bring major resources for the study of chemistry at the undergraduate level to a WWW site in our department. It has permitted the development of a continuously-growing collection of resources on chemistry. These efforts were partially supported by small UTS grants and by a BETHA grant. Rather than describe all of the resources that we make available at this site, we encourage the Committee members to access it at www.chemistry.ohio-state.edu/, then follow the leads to ‘undergraduate’ and ‘courses’, and enjoy surfing through our programs!

In addition to providing information normally available in printed form, the WWW site has two study features that have been in place about two years: (a) a quiz bank and tutorials for general chemistry and (b) flash cards for organic chemistry. Both have been used by our students and by the larger ‘student body’ outside the university.

Televised Pre-Lab Lectures. These resources have proven their usefulness in our department over a period of about thirty years. The tapes presently in use were produced on-campus in 1986-87 taking full advantage of color, sound, animations, and demonstrations on the macro and micro scale. The primary leaders in this version of the tapes were Dr. Robert J. Ouellette and Ms. Mary H. Bailey. They worked closely with personnel in the Office of Learning Resources in the taping, editing, and production of the final master and copies of the tapes. We broadcast appropriate tapes at the beginning of each laboratory period using on-site facilities, with follow-up additions and corrections presented by the laboratory teaching assistant. The pre-lab tapes are considered an essential part of each student’s preparation; in fact, if a student misses the tape by being late to the lab, they are required to view the tape before proceeding with the experiment.

At the present we are updating these existing instructional tapes. The production of any new pre-laboratory presentation is a process that must combine a number of elements. The technical content of the presentation must be scripted, and then combined with digital audio and video segments, animations and still photographs. The skills necessary to develop these individual elements are available to us from Columbus and Lima Campus Chemistry personnel, UTS personnel, and faculty and graduate students from ACCAD. These strands are being pulled together into a cohesive and powerful whole using a digital multimedia authoring program (such as Authorware). A great advantage of these developments lies in the ease with which subsequent modifications to the presentations may be made. Once in digital form, all of the media elements in the presentation may be edited and rearranged where appropriate, without the need to re-edit or re-shoot videotape as has been necessary with the present analog videos. In this way, the presentations will more easily retain consistency with the experimental procedures that the students actually perform.

These formats offer new and exciting opportunities to target a significantly broader use of these instructional materials. Unlike the present videotapes, which are simply viewed in class before a particular experiment, we envision a number of additional methods for broadcast of these multimedia presentations. Two new methods, in particular, will be developed: WEB-based distribution and CD-ROM distribution. An obvious advantage of these new mode(s) of delivery is that students will be able to view the pre-lab presentations in their own home or using Chemistry department computer facilities before coming to lab. We also plan to build in additional interactive elements, which will engage the student and result in better preparation for the laboratory. Ideally, these would require responses from the student which demonstrate an understanding and assimilation of the material, thus making the entire laboratory experience more enjoyable and beneficial to long-term retention of concepts, laboratory techniques, and data manipulation. These tutorial aspects will also be invaluable in strengthening links between laboratory and lecture material in the minds of the students.

Undergraduate Research. While formal structured classroom instruction educates students in the well understood aspects of chemistry, it fails to convey the nature of the process of discovery of new knowledge and new insights, the importance of individual enterprise and creativity, and the mindsets of its practitioners. Research is, of course, an integral part of the graduate teaching experience in chemistry. In addition, we are committed to helping our undergraduate students obtain a true research experience. In fact, it is the philosophy of our Department that research is the defining experience of undergraduate education. Typically 30 undergraduates are engaged in research projects at any one time. During summers, undergraduates come to the Department from all over the country and some from abroad to work on research in collaboration with our faculty. These summer activities are funded in part through the NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates program. Our undergraduate students find their research experiences to be invaluable.

Conclusion. The challenge of redesigning and revitalizing the chemistry curriculum must be addressed as an ongoing task rather than a solution to a single problem. In this process it is imperative that faculty who are committed to leadership in research and teaching be among its authors. Chemistry at the university level in particular, requires a preparation in technical literacy with an ever-changing world of information, resources, and decisions. It is an endeavor worthy of our highest commitment.