In 2014, the chemistry department at the University of New Orleans decided to create two new courses that would be accepted as a general education science elective for non-science majors. In our university system, all non-science majors (including social science majors such as psychology) must take a biology elective and a one year sequence of chemistry, physics or earth and environmental science (EES). The goal of these courses was to offer an exciting and modern take on chemistry that would increase our enrollment, highlight the chemistry department and encourage non-science majors to look at sciences such as chemistry in a different light. The courses were developed to be taught in the way today's students prefer to get information. Topics are taught using YouTube videos, infographics and other modern media. Topics include the more exciting aspects of chemistry such as medicine, illegal drugs, steroids, biochemistry, nerve agents, poisons, food, tattoos, nanochemistry and other similar topics. The course also addresses topics of interest and controversy such as GMO foods, vaccines and climate change. These courses have been highly successful and have increased in enrollment each year. For the 2017 academic year, there are expected to be 300 students enrolling in this 2-semester sequence, making it the largest non-biology general science course offering at our university and the 2nd biggest course offering in the chemistry department (general chemistry is the largest). The lessons learned in the creation of these courses and the alternate ways of disseminating information (videos and infographics) to non-science students will be discussed.

Using YouTube videos and infographics to teach a non-majors chemistry course (Life, universe and everything: Chemistry of our daily lives)

255th National Meeting (2018)

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