Establishing New Traditions in Chemistry

Murray State University, Murray KY

Investigators

Abstract

Chemistry (12) Many students have difficulty with the traditional chemistry curriculum involving lecture, laboratory, and recitation. This is evidenced by decreasing enrollments in both majors-level and non-majors freshman chemistry at a significant number of institutions. There also appears to be an increasing need to review fundamental concepts of general chemistry in upper-division chemistry courses, suggesting retention difficulty. This project is allowing the teaching focus to adapt and implement a number of the active-learning strategies developed by the NSF sponsored "New Traditions" consortium. The program is involving a number of active-learning methodologies (in-class writing and thinking assignments, laboratory experiments involving directed inquiry, the use of molecular modeling) which are providing the students the opportunities to develop skills in analysis methods, data organization, model development, data interpretation, drawing conclusions, and correlation of relationships among the parameters measured. The award provided funding for a "smart classroom" that is allowing students at all levels (initially freshman, later extended to upper-division) of chemistry courses to participate in inquiry-based instruction.