Chemical Education Journal (CEJ), Vol. 4, No. 1 /Registration
No. 4-4/Received February 12, 2000.
URL = http://www.juen.ac.jp/scien/cssj/cejrnlE.html
E-mail: zafral@aol.com
Abstract: As we move into the new millennium, it is essential
that the people who will shape our future will have a good chemistry
background in order to understand the important role that chemistry
plays in environmental issues, new materials, Green Chemistry,
industry, pharmaceuticals, medicine, gene therapy, etc. This will
allow decisions to be made from a knowledgeable and intelligent
point of view, and not just from a political or economic point
of view.
A special curriculum in chemistry and technology was developed in a collaborative effort between Princeton University (a private prestigious ivy league school which accepts only the top 2% of graduating high school students), Indiana University (a large state school with 45,000 students) and Columbia College (an urban art and communications school which accepts all high school degreed applicants with no selection). The project was funded by the National Science Foundation. The rationale for this collaboration was that it should produce a model program readily adaptable for any institution of higher education because the partners come from three very different types of institutions, and the students have very different academic, economic and cultural backgrounds.
The purpose of this curriculum is to teach chemistry to students who will be responsible for shaping our future. This includes students who major in media communications, television, radio, film and journalism and who will become our future communicators; students who major in politics, political science and economics and who will be our future politicians and policy makers; students who major in education and will be responsible for educating future generations; as well as students who major in science related fields but are not chemistry majors.
This course is student-centered. Subjects relevant to students' lives, majors and the environment are used in the curriculum as vehicles to explain basic chemistry concepts. Ideas and solutions to problems are decided, designed and presented as projects by the students in groups or individually. Students choose the media of presentation, which can take the form of videos, sculptures, books, illustrations, computer graphics, or interactive multimedia. The course takes advantage of the Science Visualization and Communication Lab, where the students produce 3-D models of abstract chemistry concepts and communicate them through CD-ROMs and videos.
CEJ Vol. 4, No. 1, Contents