Our Curriculum

The Chemistry Department, with the financial help of the National Science Foundation, is implementing a  chemistry curriculum that will prepare students to learn and practice science in a modern world in which disciplinary boundaries are removed and collaboration and integration of disciplines is essential. Here are some of the innovative features of our curriculum, which has received approval from graduate, medical, DO and PT schools.

• An introductory, "atoms first" course which shows how chemical properties emerge from structure
• Integration of the five subdisciplines of chemistry into a series of new foundation courses 
• A new model for a skills and techiques-based chemistry labs with use of advanced instrumentation
• A problem-based learning pedagogy
• Expanded student choice of concentrations and in-depth courses

Graphics

• Our New Curriculum Overview
• Our New In-Depth Classes

Some recent publications about our curriculum

• Chemical Structure and Properties: A Modified Atoms-First, One-Semester Introductory Chemistry Course - Journal Chemical Education,  2015, 92 (2), pp 237–246 (DOI: 10.1021/ed400839y)
• Developing and Implementing a Reorganized Undergraduate Chemistry Curriculum Based on the Foundational Chemistry Topics of Structure, Reactivity, and Quantitation.  Journal Chemical Education, 2014, 91 (3), pp 321–328 (DOI: 10.1021/ed400336d)

 

Here is a figure that shows how the content of our old  and standard curriculum maps onto our new curriculum.

• Detailed Information (Syllabi, Daily Schedules) for First Two Years of Courses