Proposal for
Restructuring of the BS
Chemistry Degree and
Reduction of Units in the
Degree
Degree: BS
Chemistry
Contact: Jim
Orenberg (8-1288; Orenberg@sfsu.edu)
II. Proposed Change and Rationale
It is the intent of this proposal to do the following:
1. to reduce the units in the major from 73 to 70 as the net effect of course substitutions and adjustments by
2. eliminating Phys 240, 242 and Math 228 from the degree requirements
3. substituting CHEM 251, Mathematics and Physics for Chemistry, for the courses listed in “2”.
4. removing CHEM 452 and CHEM 453, Integrated Lab courses, from requirements for the degree
5. substituting the new courses CHEM 422, Instrumental Analysis, CHEM 426, Inorganic Chemistry Lab, and CHEM 451, Physical Chemistry Lab for CHEM 452 and CHEM 453.
6. adding CHEM 340, Biochemistry I, as a degree requirement
7. and reducing the chemistry elective units from 8 to 6
The BS Chemistry degree has seen a reduction in student interest (number of majors) over the years, while the other Bachelor of Science degree in the Department, BS Biochemistry, has seen a dramatic increase in its graduates. A plausible explanation for these opposing trends may be the swift rise of the biotechnology area over the last 15 years, and thus concomitant student interest in this relatively new field. The BS Biochemistry major provides an entry pathway into this growth industry. In an attempt to rekindle student interest in the BS Chemistry major and make the degree more attractive and competitive, the Department is proposing a revision to the BS Chemistry major. The revised major reduces the overall units required and will speed up the time to graduation. In addition, the revised major demands fewer units of physics and math allowing students more units in chemistry and more options in choosing their chemistry electives. All of these changes fit within the guidelines of our overseeing professional organization, the American Chemical Society, and thus the degree remains “ACS Certified”.
One of the main objectives of this proposal is to provide all chemistry students with a curriculum more tailored to their needs, one that will provide an expeditious pathway to graduation. The reduction in calculus and physics courses and substitution of CHEM 251 by itself will satisfy this objective. The substitution of CHEM 422, CHEM 426, and CHEM 451 will provide our students with a more even and consistent presentation of analytical instrumentation, inorganic synthesis, and physical chemistry lab experiences. It will also allow for more innovation in the individual courses, because decisions on innovation and change will occur between likeminded, sub-discipline specialists, and will not have to be debated by other specialists who may not have the knowledge, perspective or experience to reach curricular decisions thoughtfully.
In the existing BS Chemistry degree, there are 12 units of physics with calculus and 12 units of calculus required. Some of the material in both the physics sequence and calculus sequence is ancillary to the objectives of the calculus and physics required to study advanced level chemistry courses. In an effort to reduce the units required for a BS Chemistry degree, the Department is proposing a course, CHEM 251, that incorporates the needed elements of physics from Phys 240, 242 and calculus from Math 228 for our degree students. The material in this course has been carefully selected to prepare students for the rigors of the more physical and calculus dependent chemistry courses found at the upper levels of the BS Chemistry degree. This substitution will provide students with a more useful course tailored to their specific needs, and result in a 5 unit reduction in the requirements of the major. Of course, students who prefer to elect Math 228 and Physics 240, 242 will be allowed to and the substitution accepted in place of CHEM 251. Approval of the proposed substitution of CHEM 251 for the designated physics and math courses has been obtained from the Physics and Mathematics Departments (attachments)
The Integrated Lab sequence, CHEM 452 and CHEM 453, was designed and initiated 30 years ago for students pursuing a BA or BS degree in Chemistry. It grew out of the thought that an integrated sequence of courses would provide a synergism in learning and a more useful and rewarding learning experience for students instead of separate courses in instrumental analysis, inorganic and physical chemistry labs. In theory this seemed an innovative idea, while in fact, the integrated experience has proved, in general, too demanding for our student clientele. The course seemed to require a level of maturity based upon experience found in second year graduate chemistry students, and thus this course frustrated most of our students. In addition, the slant or focus of the course depended closely upon the background discipline of the faculty involved in teaching the courses. In CHEM 452, the content would vary according to whether an analytical, inorganic, or physical chemist was responsible for the presentation. In some cases this might be thought of as a positive facet, but it often meant that some students received a very large dose of physical chemistry while being short-changed on the analytical instrumentation aspect. In this team teaching effort, faculty often could not agree on what should be emphasized. To combat these shortcomings, the Department has decided to return to a more traditional presentation of the subject matter using three separate courses. While doing this, the colleagues involved in creating the new, separate courses did not lose sight of the advantages of attempting to integrate different areas of chemistry, so that each separate course has some integration of the other chemical disciplines in it.
An additional factor that has demanded change from the existing integrated sequence to the separate courses proposed in this new degree is that the large majority of students in CHEM 452, the first semester of integrated lab, are BS Biochemistry degree students. We have over the last 15 years found ourselves in the uncomfortable situation of teaching a class designed for the rigor of a BS Chemistry major, yet the student population does not possess the objectives, perspective, and outlook of the BS Chemistry student. In the last 15 years, student demographics indicated that the class was composed of about 75-80% BS Biochemistry degree candidates, about 10-15% BA Chemistry degree candidates, and a small minority of BS Chemistry degree candidates. Changing student enrollment patterns is a substantive reason to contemplate a change in the curriculum. The biochemistry degree students will be allowed to substitute CHEM 422, Instrumental Analysis, for C452, Integrated Lab, as a requirement in their degree. CHEM 422 will provide the valuable instrumental experience needed by biochemistry students in a more palatable, applied format that will include biochemical systems (CHEM 422 syllabus – attachments).
The substitution of CHEM 422, CHEM 426, and CHEM 451 for CHEM 452 and CHEM 453 results in a one unit increase in the units for the major. Coupled with the new CHEM 251 course, the net result of these changes is a decrease of 4 units in the BS Chemistry degree. Due to the guidelines (attachments) of our overseeing professional organization, the American Chemical Society (ACS), the organization that certifies our BS Chem degree, we have decided to increase the required units by 3 more and require CHEM 340, Biochemistry I. At the same time, we have reduced the chemistry electives by 2 units, from 8 to 6, resulting in an overall reduction of 3 units in BS Chemistry degree. The existing BS Chemistry major has 73 units in the degree, while the proposed major has 70 units in the degree. These changes are summarized on the degree sheets (attachments) showing the suggested course sequences for existing and proposed majors. The new courses, CHEM 251, CHEM 422, CHEM 426, and CHEM 451, are each described on attached sheets.
Realizing the pedagogic value of an integrated curriculum, the new proposed courses will attempt to keep this facet alive. From the attached course descriptions and syllabi, the new courses will make efforts to overlap with sub-disciplines. For example, instrumental analysis will choose systems for study by instruments from biochemistry, the inorganic realm, and the environment. Inorganic lab will not only do inorganic synthesis, but will demand use of much of the instrumental knowledge presented in the instrumental analysis course. The physical chemistry lab will use some of the inorganic materials synthesized to conduct physical chemistry experiments as well as making use of the instrumental knowledge presented in the instrumental analysis class. Our objective in this overlap is to provide a real world lab situation for assessment of learning outcomes.
One of the main activities of a practicing chemist is to write up results in a conventional format acceptable for publication in the scientific community. Such a format takes the form of a journal article. The format is an abstract of the experiment including results, an introduction, a section describing the experimental details, a section in which the results are presented and their significance described and interpreted, and a conclusion. Practice in writing journal articles was used frequently in CHEM 452 and CHEM 453 laboratories. This exercise will continue in the new courses, and where the courses are team taught, two professors will be available to read and evaluate the writing quality and content of the report. Department faculty consider this a very important learning objective in advanced course such as described here, for we realize the importance of being able to communicate the results of experiments in an articulate and lucid way
Frequently scientists associated with the experimental sciences interpret assessment in terms of success of our students in acquiring positions and excelling in these. This is a reasonable interpretation of assessment. In addition, assessment of instructional objectives can be made using well-designed laboratory problems or experiments, for such problems require integration of lecture or theoretical content and laboratory skills. The experiments designed for CHEM 422, CHEM 426, and CHEM 451 have such learning objectives in mind, and assess student learning in a way that is equivalent to field or external laboratory situations. As a Department, we are pleased with the design of our laboratory experiments as they assess our efforts at student learning. Student performance in the proposed laboratory courses are frequently fed back to the chemistry courses that precede these and often stimulate change to improve student performance in these upper level courses.