Professional preparedness for undergraduate Chemistry involves both the acquisition of knowledge, critical thinking and laboratory skills as well as non-technical skills important for successful careers. Clarke University’s general education Compass program helps develop several important skills, most notably oral communication skills. The Chemistry program required a 1-credit Scientific Information seminar course and a Capstone focusing on one in-depth topic, accompanied by laboratory research for the BS degree. Students were not adequately prepared for the Capstone, with scientific writing a major shortcoming. We redesigned the curriculum to provide a series of four one-credit courses that successively developed student skills in chemical literacy and scientific writing, and culminated in a Capstone course that required both oral and written communication. Students were plugged into the chemistry community through ACS memberships, C&EN article reports and alumni interviews. The new sequence included additional emphasis on ethical reasoning and safety training. The redesign provided greater flexibility to allow successful completion of the degree in three years and for ease of transfer students. The first batch of students to complete the sequence in Spring 2020 demonstrated better writing skills and successfully completed their Capstones even with COVID-related disruptions. The design of the sequence with outcomes for each course as well as student feedback will be presented.

Redesigning junior seminar-capstone sequence for professional preparedness in chemistry

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.