The use of a citizen-first or contextualized approach for liberal arts chemistry courses has been shown to be extremely effective in fostering student interest and motivation. In addition to offsetting the intimidation factor frequently exhibited by nonscience majors, it is important that all students understand the influence of chemistry in their everyday lives. In this presentation, we will describe the use of COVID-19 as one of the contexts discussed in CHM 265QR, a liberal arts chemistry course populated by elementary education majors. This context was peppered throughout the class, to demonstrate basic concepts such as unit conversions, intermolecular forces and polarity, as well as scientific methodology and media bias.

Contextualized general chemistry: Using the context of COVID-19 in a liberal arts chemistry course

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

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