Structure, reactivity and applications: General chemistry reform at a mid-sized public university

S. Todd Deal, Brenda Wojciechowski, James LoBue, Jessica N. Orvis, Norman Schmidt, Jeffery A. Orvis

Research output: Contribution to specialist publicationArticle

Abstract

Georgia Southern, like most institutions interested in chemical education, is currently carrying out several efforts to improve the effectiveness of our general chemistry program. While many of the most innovative ideas in general chemistry reform are found at smaller, liberal arts colleges, the size and character of the student body at GSU make many of these ideas impractical. Instead, we have reexamined our traditional general chemistry course, carefully asking ourselves what we did not like about it, and what we were trying to accomplish in the course. Our reformatting of the course around the themes of Structure, Reactivity and Applications is an attempt to tighten the presentation of material and focus student's attention on the subject matter without overwhelming them with the full scope of chemistry too early in their careers as chemistry students. Still left to be tackled is the laboratory portion of our course. We have added some discovery based labs, but the overall experience is still rather traditional. Efforts in this area are continuing. The general chemistry reform we have implemented is now in its first full year. Initial feedback from students and instructors is very encouraging, and the dropout rate of students in the first quarter of general chemistry is 63% lower this year as compared to previous years. We believe our ideas, applicable to any public university teaching average college students, make general chemistry less intimidating and more interesting to the students, and bring the course closer to our ideal of being general chemistry for the general student.

Original languageEnglish
Pages3-6
Number of pages4
Volume73
No3
Specialist publicationChemist
StatePublished - May 1996

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