Chemistry department makes major changes

In the face of an international decline in students pursuing chemistry degrees, IU's chemistry faculty is revamping the department's approaches and finding new ways to spark and maintain student interest. \nMany factors affect students pursuing chemistry today, said retired IUPUI Chemistry Professor Erwin Boschman, also previously IU's Associate Vice President of Distributed Education. \nLack of interest might be a cause, he said, but definitely trends in science education to combine fields, demands in the workforce, tough math requirements and a drop in students from abroad.\nChemistry Professor Catherine Reck is one of several key IU faculty members working to combat these factors by developing new approaches to chemistry education.\nThree years ago, the department began introducing several major changes to its curriculum. This fall, the changes will be finalized and apply to all students for the first time.\nOne of the first changes Reck helped implement was integrating lab and lecture courses to correlate with each other. The new five credit-hour combination replaced an old system in which students' lectures might have nothing to do with their lab courses. \nMany schools across the country still don't combine lab and lecture courses, Reck pointed out. \n"This is just generated by faculty that say, 'You know what? I don't care what other places are doing. This is what we need to do now,'" she said.\nAnother step for the department was to make a smoother path for students' to follow as they pursued their degrees. This involves making sure classes lead into each other, each one building off the material learned in the course \nbefore.\n"I like to think of it as a storyline," Reck said. Also, this structure "helps get to the cooler stuff faster." \nThe department has also upped the requirements for its entry level chemistry course (C117), bumping a large amount of students to a prep-chemistry course to get them familiar with key concepts and increase their confidence for future classes.\nReck strongly emphasizes that students need to understand concepts and applications, not just worry about getting right answers.\nWhile chemistry majors across the country are dropping, IU's chemistry majors have only increased, from about 100 two years ago to 360 this year. And the drop/fail/withdraw rate has dropped from about 40% to 18%, Reck said.\nAcross the Atlantic, many U.K. universities have been scrapping chemistry courses for the past 10 years due to lack in demand, IU's chemistry department has added several new courses, including science-focused career preparatory classes and oral presentations classes to help students present research \nprofessionally.\nPam Sontz, a junior Biochemistry major, took a career prep course from the chemistry department this year, which helped her as she considers careers, as well as graduate and medical schools.\n"That was one of the most beneficial classes," she said. "I'm glad I got to take it before I graduate."\nReck won't deny she wants to see IU's chemistry department move straight to the top and out-rank other top chemistry programs, but it's not her main focus.\nThe goal is the success of the students, she said. \n"Everyone in this office will tell you we want our students to be prepared for their careers, successful and happy in their jobs," she said.