Reform, physical chemistry

We are taught in business school (I am told) that every challenge is an opportunity. That is probably untrue in physical chemistry (and perhaps in commerce too), but there are certainly opportunities for us to enhance our teaching. I have identified three principal ones in Fig.lb, namely graphics, curriculum reform, and the conceptual basis of our subject. As for challenges, no opportunity is an island, and I like to think that the triangle summarizes the interplay between them and the strength that they acquire in combination. 

The Effects of Physical Chemistry Curriculum Reform on the American Chemical Society DivCHED Physical Chemistry Examinations... 

The physical chemistry curriculum reform efforts of the last two decades have succeeded in encouraging some revisions in the material in the lecture and in new or modernized exercises for use in the laboratory. More slowly, the mainstream standardized multiple choice examination has also kept pace with the curricular revisions. The content areas represented on the examination have changed with each successive revision of the examination, as have the types of questions asked. The content areas on the examination have become more representative of modem physical chemistry practice, while the items themselves have become more conceptually based. 

Physical chemistry, as a separate subdiscipline of chemistry, grew out of the application of the methods of physics to chemical problems. Historically, it distinguished itself from the other subdisciplines of chemistry by its use of mathematics, by the precision with which measurements are performed, and by the emphasis on atomic and molecular processes under examination (/). At the same time as the discipline was developing, a reform of the teaching of chemistry was needed as a discussion of the systematic behavior of reactions was desired to prepare students to deal with the new ways in which material was being discussed. 

Wei, J. and Iglesia, E. Isotopic and kinetic assessment of the mechanism of methane reforming and decomposition reactions on supported iridium catalysts. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 2004, 6, 3754. 

Geissler, K., Newson, E., Vogel, E, Truong, T.-B., Hottinger, P., and Wokaun, A. Auto-thermal methanol reforming for hydrogen production in fuel cell applications. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 2001, 3, 289. 

In 1912 Lewis accepted a position as dean and chairman of the College of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. He remained at Berkeley for the rest of his hfe and transformed the chemistry department there into a world-class center for research and teaching. His reforms in the way chemistry was taught, a catalyst for the modernization of chemical education, were widely adopted throughout the United States. Lewis introduced thermodynamics to the curriculum, and his book on the same subject became a classic. He also brought to the study of physical chemistry such concepts as fugacity, activity and the activity coefficient, and ionic strength. 

Keywords Physical chemistry education Affective states Fennema-Sherman scales Reformed teaching observation protocol Gender differences... 

This finding suggests that reform-based teaching strategies would yield more positive student attitudes toward physical chemistry. 

Rico, V. J., Hueso, J. L., Cotrino, J., Gonzalez-Elipe, A. R. (2010). Evaluation of different dielectric barrier discharge plasma configurations as an alternative technology for green Cl chemistry in the carbon dioxide reforming of methane and the direct decomposition of methanol. Journal of Physical Chemistry A, 114 ), 4009—4016. 

Herron, M. E., Doyle, S. E., Pizzini, S., Roberts, K. J., Robinson J., et al., "In situ studies of a dispersed platinum on carbon electrode using X-ray absorption spectroscopy . Journal ofElectroanalytical Chemistry 324,243-258 (1992). Viswanathan, R., Hou, G. Y., Liu,R. X.,Bare, S. R.,Modica, F., etal, "In situ XANES of carbon-supported R-Ru anode electrocatalyst for reformate-air polymer electrolyte fuel cells . The Journal of Physical Chemistry B 106, 3458-3465 (2002). 

Ernest Solvay, industrial chemist and social reformer, was born in 1838, eight years after Belgian independence. He attended school as a boarder and read widely in chemistry and physics. Even at school he had converted his room into a chemical laboratory, and spent his vacations working on experiments. 

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