Course content goals

An alternative to assimilation is to make clear to students that they may cross the sociological border into science with their cultural identity both intact and, perhaps, valued. This is a specific goal of the work of Middlecamp and Subramaniam (1999). Within the biological sciences, including gender as a specific component of course content is a more obvious move than in chemistry (Birke 2001). There are more studies in which a connection of chemistry to sociology occurs through the lens of race and ethnicity, for example, in the Project Inclusion work of Hayes and Perez (1997) and the multicultural examples developed by Middlecamp and Fernandez (1999). 

Our plans for the future include replication of the experiment with other group of students and other courses. Developing course content for computing subjects like data structures, C language, and JAVA in the IGL model is one of our major goals. Finally, this project aims to develop and revise more IGL activities and extend and adapt them for courses and faculty at other instimtions. 

With these goals in mind, we have studied the distribution of the liquid phase in the course of the hydrogenation reaction in a catalyst bed comprised of 1-mm catalyst beads (Figure 5.4.5). The 2D images shown reflect the distribution of the liquid phase in a 2-mm thick axial slice upon variation of the liquid AMS flow rate. The results show that while the increase in the flow rate leads to larger liquid contents in the bed (and vice versa), a steady state operation of the catalyst bed with unchanging spatial distribution of the liquid is observed if the external conditions remain unchanged. 

Two papers reported powder pattern crystallographic results. The paper by Santos et al. (7) stood out from the rest because it presented a collection of more classical physical chemistry experiments. In this paper the authors described the use of micro-combustion calorimetry, Knudsen effusion to determine enthalpy of sublimation, differential scanning calorimetry, X-ray diffraction, and computed entropies. While this paper may provide some justification for including bomb calorimetry and Knudsen cell experiments in student laboratories, the use of differential scanning calorimetry and x-ray diffraction also are alternatives that would make for a crowded curriculum. Thus, how can we choose content for the first physical chemistiy course that shows the currency of the discipline while maintaining the goal to teach the fundamentals and standard techniques as well ... 

Returning to the matter of curriculum, this obviously is not the time nor the place to dwell upon specific courses or their detailed content. Other speakers will deal more completely with that topic. Rather, let us consider the ultimate goal of a forensic science training and education program. Simply stated, the goal, as I see it, is to educate and train students to interpret evidence and events correctly, so that such interpretations will prove or disprove the truth or validity of the state-... 

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