Another round of proposals for full awards was accepted in June of 1995, and we expect to make one more award in the program during FY1996. We do not expect to accept proposals for either planning or full grants in this program in June of 1996. However, the regular Course and Curriculum Development program will continue to accept and fund proposals requesting support for smaller-scale changes in the chemistry curriculum.

ChemLinks Coalition: Making Chemical Connections

DUE 9455918: FY1995, $705,000; FY 1996, $655,000; FY1997, $655,000; FY1998, $350,00; FY1999, $350,000

The ChemLinks Coalition is undertaking a five-year project to change the way students learn chemistry, increase scientific literacy for all students taking chemistry, and promote the process of educational reform. In collaboration with the ModularChem Consortium, faculty are developing, testing, and disseminating modular course materials that use active and collaborative approaches to learning. These materials, focused on the first two years of the chemistry curriculum, start with interdisciplinary questions important to students and to society (the molecular basis of life, the environment, technology), and in answering them develop an appreciation of how science is actually done. This approach is designed to reach a broader student audience more effectively than do traditional courses, an audience that includes students who are members of groups traditionally underrepresented in science, nonscience majors, and those taking chemistry as a supporting course, as well as chemistry majors. By providing a model for students preparing for careers in teaching, this approach has an impact on Teacher Preparation Programs. Collaboration among faculty from different disciplines and a number of institutions supports and reinforces those who want to make changes. These leading liberal arts colleges (Beloit, Carleton, Colorado, Grinnell, Hope, Kalamazoo, Knox, Lawrence, Macalester, Rhodes, Spelman, St. Olaf, Wooster) and research universities (Chicago, Washington - St. Louis) already have experience working together on chemistry curricular reform. An alliance with the Advanced Technology Environmental Education Center's coalition of 2-year institutions assures an impact on Advanced Technology Education Programs. By using the extensive Project Kaleidoscope network to promote reform, the ChemLinks Coalition involves a much larger and more diverse group of institutions in making systemic and sustainable changes in undergraduate chemistry education.

A Workshop Chemistry Curriculum

DUE 9455920: FY1995, $425,000; FY1996, $400,000; FY1997, $400,000; FY1998, $150,000; FY1999, $150,000

The City College Consortium, which includes ten senior and community colleges at the City University of New York, and the Universities of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Rochester, is developing and applying widely a new model of teaching. This model, called Workshop Chemistry, introduces participation and mentorship by recent completers of the course. Small group, student-led workshops are integral to the course structure. Every week two workshops, each an hour long, complement the lecture and laboratory components. The workshop model provides a collaborative learning experience that increases student involvement and provides a new role for students as mentors. In Workshop Chemistry, students learn the problem solving, communication, and teamwork skills crucial for success in the workplace while learning chemistry more effectively. Working together with the faculty, students become an active part of the community of the department.

A prototype workshop model has been developed at City College in a general chemistry course for science and engineering majors and is being expanded and refined for a broad range of courses including preparatory chemistry, chemistry for allied health sciences, organic chemistry, instrumental, and analytical chemistry. The experience of students as workshop leaders provides a natural introduction to teaching that is being formalized through a Teacher Preparation component of the project. The workshop method is also being exploited and applied in curricula for technician education, an initiative relevant to Advanced Technology Education.

The project evaluates Workshop Chemistry and disseminates it beyond the bounds of the consortium. Student Workshop Manuals that include the problem solving, model building, and simulation activities of the workshops are being produced for each course. New project partners will be invited to view workshops, to participate in faculty developments, and to implement pilot workshop courses at their own institutions.

Sweeping Change in Manageable Units: A Modular Approach for Chemistry Curriculum Reform

DUE 9455924: FY1995, $755,000; FY1996, $705,000; FY1997, $705,000; FY1998, $350,000; FY1999, $350,000

The purpose of this program is to develop new curricula, materials and methods that will enhance the appreciation and learning of science, especially chemistry, for every undergraduate student such that all college graduates will command the knowledge and skills necessary to permit continued learning, lead productive lives, and make informed decisions. To accomplish this mission, a modular approach to teaching chemistry in the first two years of the undergraduate curriculum is being developed and evaluated. Modules of 1-4 weeks present fundamental chemistry to students in the context of a real-world problem or application and emphasize the links between chemistry and other disciplines. In collaboration with the ChemLinks Coalition, modules are being developed, tested and refined at the two- and four-year colleges and research universities comprising the two consortia. Curriculum materials, including text, lab, and multimedia components suitable for students from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds and usable at a wide variety of undergraduate institutions are being produced and distributed by an established publisher. Teaching methods that utilize current understanding of learning processes and emphasize active learning and the full spectrum of modern technologies are being supported, tested, and promulgated. A model support infrastructure for development and assessment of new materials and methods is being provided. A framework for continuous improvement of curricula should result from the work and be institutionalized within the consortium. Faculty workshops and sessions at national and regional meetings will be conducted to guarantee dissemination. Our consortium institutions now participate significantly in pre-service teacher training and education of advanced science or engineering technicians and are developing new programs in these areas. Thus, our program will strongly impact the Advanced Technological Education and Teacher Preparation Programs by developing modular materials appropriate to the task of educating future teachers and technicians.

Establishing New Traditions: Revitalizing the Curriculum

DUE 9455928: FY1995, $949,968; FY1996, $899,999; FY1997, $899,941; FY1998, $499,941; FY1999, $499,742

This project establishes new traditions in the chemistry curriculum that optimize opportunities for all students to learn chemical facts and concepts, develop and pursue interests in chemistry and chemistry-related disciplines, and appreciate how an understanding of chemistry is important to life and living. We are changing fundamentally the ways students, faculty, and administrators view their roles, creating a student-centered, active-learning emphasis. We have a broad range of reforms, each of which is developed, tested, modified, thoroughly evaluated, and widely disseminated. We address five main areas that apply to all levels of the curriculum: student-focused active learning; inquiry-based/open-ended laboratories; interdisciplinary course clusters to create learning communities; a topic-oriented curriculum; and information technology/computer tools. Each development in each area is carefully evaluated, and only the best survive. Evaluation provides important information about the process of transfer of innovations among institutions of different types. To insure that our reforms are useful for all students, our consortium includes industry, public and private four-year institutions, minority institutions, and two-year colleges. The project gives special emphasis to students who choose teaching as a career option by main-streaming these students in courses that benefit them in both content and pedagogy. Students, including those in Science Education, are fully integrated into the development and implementation of the project, working on both research topics and evaluation. The project also gives special emphasis to community college students in Advanced Technological Education programs to ensure that they share in using the newly developed curriculum. The students in the ATE program will clearly benefit by being provided the five main areas of thrust that this coalition is developing. All the students emerge with greater comprehension and better retention of chemical knowledge, improved ability to apply chemical concepts to new problems, enhanced appreciation of the relation between chemistry and other disciplines, and skills that enable them to work effectively in multidisciplinary teams.