MCPHS University (formerly Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences) focuses on preparing students for health care and scientific professions; at this institution, the chemistry program provides foundational training in an interdisciplinary context. Chemistry professor Joy Heising will discuss a specific assignment in a third-year inorganic chemistry course that blends skills of both chemistry and the humanities. The assignment requires evidence-based persuasion in an oral presentation and term paper based on Primo Levi's The Periodic Table. English professor Susan Gorman will discuss how persuasive writing skills and critical reading skills are developed at this science-focused institution. Overall, this talk will be one that resists the compartmentalization of both the humanities and the sciences. Instead, finding moments of connection between the humanities and sciences helps students to develop communication skills essential for chemistry graduates, particularly those conducting research and providing expertise in the field. These moments can create discomfort, however, for both students and faculty, as will be discussed.

Humanities formation in chemistry: Evidence-based argument and Primo Levi's The Periodic Table

2019 Spring National Meeting

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