March 9, 1999
Contact: Leila Belkora (312) 996-3457 [email protected]
Editors: Embargoed until March 24, 10 a.m. PST
EDUCATORS IMPROVE COURSES FOR FUTURE NON-CHEMISTRY PROFESSIONALS
If the thought of studying spectrophotometry and stoichiometry makes a student cringe, he or she is probably not a chemistry major. However, the student might have to study chemistry anyway, to satisfy requirements for a degree in nursing, engineering, or environmental science. Given a choice, he or she might prefer to study, say, the tests a hospital does on the blood of a patient admitted to the emergency room.
Chemistry educators at the University of Illinois at Chicago and their colleagues at community colleges in the Chicago area expect that their new laboratory program for general chemistry, which they will present March 21 and 24 at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society, will be more effective than traditional courses at teaching undergraduates - and more engaging, through the use of real-world examples such as the blood test on hypothetical ER patients.
Their program, which they developed over the course of two years with grants from the National Science Foundation, does not skimp on basics, either; the blood test lab introduces students to the science of stoichiometry (how chemicals combine) and spectrophotometry (identifying components of mixtures and their concentration, by studying light absorbed or emitted by the mixture). The spectrophotometer the students use at UIC is state-of-the-art research equipment, so they gain familiarity with equipment they are likely to use as professionals, as well.
"Our research indicates that few if any students in a general chemistry classroom are planning to work as 'chemists,'" said Donald Wink, associate professor of chemistry at UIC and one of the course developers. "But most of them - nurses, doctors, clinical lab personnel, pharmacists, engineers, and environmental scientists - will use chemistry in their daily work. The Working with Chemistry program makes clear the connection between general chemistry and a professional career."
Wink and his colleagues Sharon Fetzer Gislason at UIC and Julie Ellefson Kuehn at Harper College drew on the expertise of UIC researchers in fields as diverse as medicine and mechanical engineering to make the labs as up-to-date and relevant as possible. They asked educators from four local community colleges, the College of DuPage, Harold Washington College, Oakton Community College and William Rainey Harper College, to help test and refine the laboratory modules.
Kuehn, a faculty member in chemistry at Harper College who also uses the modules in her classes, said she's had a "really good experience" with the new laboratory program.
"For me, it reinforced the application of chemistry to fields outside of chemistry. The students like the program too, particularly the modules with an environmental focus since they can all relate to environmental issues." UIC's acceptance of a large number of transfer students from local community colleges prompted Wink and his colleagues to develop the laboratory modules in partnership with those schools, turning what could have been an obstacle to continuity into an opportunity to improve the experiences of all undergraduates.
"We asked ourselves, what advantage does UIC have as an environment for developing a new course for future nurses, doctors, pharmacists or engineers? We've got research level programs in all those areas on campus. We give the students connections to the professional world. And through the laboratory program, we can offer that to students in their first year," he said.
- UIC -
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