Physical chemistry curriculum projects

In 1993 Richard W. Schwenz and Robert J. Moore published a book, under the auspices of the American Chemical Society, entitled Physical Chemistry Developing a Dynamic Curriculum (/). This book followed a 1988 project by the Pew Mid-Atlantic Cluster on revision of the physical chemistry laboratory curriculum, and NSF funded workshops in 1990 and 1991 on physical chemistry curriculum development. Together they called for substantial changes in the content of the physical chemistry lab. 

For those more inclined to use environmental topics to enrich thermodynamics and kinetics parts of the physical chemistry curriculum, Modeling Stratospheric Ozone Chemistry and the Contrail projects are two examples. 

My first encounter with the field of colloid science occurred during my undergraduate studies, when I worked in a project on the electroacoustic zeta-potential measurement of colloidal suspensions. I probably did not understand much of the measurement technique, but I became fascinated with colloids for several reasons. First, they behave strangely —at least for a student of process engineering whose education in physics stopped right after mechanics and thermodynamics. Second, in our library I found some of the historical papers by Smoluchowski and others, which impressed by their age and the clear and comprehensible explanation of the physical phenomena in colloidal suspensions. Further on, I felt attracted by the interrelation of physics, chemistry and engineering. Last but not least, there was this mystery that our curriculum completely ignored the subject of colloids. 

ACS prior to 2008. Students are required to take at least one elective course. These electives consist both of advanced courses in core areas, and interdisciplinaiy courses such as materials science, polymers, lasers, nuclear, and environmental chemistry. The department has a tradition of integrating disciplines in specific courses, as exemplified by our required integrated organic/inorganic laboratory (10), several materials science courses (co-taught between the departments of chemistry and physics), and a biophysical course (co-taught by a biochemist and physicist). However, prior to this project, we had not made a concerted effort to weave a broad interdisciplinary topic throughout the curriculum. 

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