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A non-science majors' chemistry course that satisfies both instructors and students has been a long and difficult quest. Wolke (1) outlined the problems encountered in teaching such a course and the objectives such a course should include. The Mount Holyoke Conference of 1972 (2) specifically addressed the issue of courses that included contemporary chemical applications. Both Harvard and MIT implemented a course that introduced chemical concepts to non-science majors based on hands-on qualitative and quantitative analyses of their daily diets (3). Hostettler published a bibliography of courses and laboratories specifically designed for nonscientists that were developed between 1968 and 1977 (4). Mitchell (5) discussed changes in student interest and goals in relation to teaching chemistry to the non-science major. Chemistry for Citizens: A Symposium (6) contains a collection of papers describing similar courses. More recent courses designed for nonscientists include a variety of consumer and interdisciplinary courses (7 - 10). The pioneering work of Tobias (11), analyzing the reasons for the hostility toward chemistry courses, must be included among the more recent attempts to shift the paradigm away from the traditional course.
Literature Cited
1. Wolke, R. L. J. Chem. Educ. 1970, 47, 788.
2. Report of the Mt. Holyoke Conference Education in Chemistry '72. J. Chem. Educ. 1973, 50, 3 - 45.
3. Chem. & Eng. News July 8, 1974, 29.
4. Hostettler, J. D. J. Chem. Educ. 1979, 56, 33.
5. Mitchell, J. J. Chem. Educ. 1979, 56, 112.
6. Mooney, W. J. Chem. Educ. 1985, 62, 762.
7. Bodner, G. M. J. Chem. Educ. 1988, 65, 212.
8. Labiance, D. A.; Reeves, W. J. College Teaching 1989, 37, 135.
9. Finster, D. C. Liberal Educ. 1992, 78, 14.
10. Adams, D. L. J. Chem. Educ. 1991, 68, 483.
11. Tobias, S. Revitalizing Undergraduate Science; Research Corp., 1992; They're Not Dumb. They're Different; Research Corp., 1990.
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