Chemistry faculty and staff including Judith Burstyn, Clark Landis, Gil Nathanson, J.R. Schmidt, Cathy Middlecamp, and Ned Sibert teamed with Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning Aaron Brower in a successful proposal to UW-System Administration to restructure the Chemistry 103 curriculum.
Chem 103 is the campus’ largest introductory chemistry class.
Over the next several years their project, “Closing the Achievement Gap in General Chemistry Courses: A Two-pronged Approach” project will integrate active learning techniques and will develop new curricular materials to teach chemistry in a more context-based approach.
One major goal of the project is to develop teaching approaches that will enhance learning among students from non-traditional backgrounds who might be more at-risk in the existing.