Murray State University is located in far-western Kentucky and serves a regional student population which also encompasses southern Illinois, northwestern Tennessee and southeastern Missouri. Students from this area are generally from rural areas, many of which are first-generation college students. In our region, students who are considering a major in science (especially chemistry and biology) are narrowly focused on going to medical, dental or pharmacy school, and thus are unaware of the breadth of careers available to students who major (or minor) in chemistry, particularly those related to polymer science. As MSU has never offered a degree program in chemical engineering, polymer/materials science or any related field of study, we developed an undergraduate chemistry degree track in 2014 which focused on polymer and material science in order to broaden the education and potential career opportunities available to our students. Initial curriculum changes included small additions to courses such as organic chemistry and instrumental analysis, as well as a revival of our lecture-based polymer chemistry course. More impactful changes included the offering of two new courses: Chemical Engineering for Chemists and a stand-alone Polymer and Materials Science Laboratory course. In this discussion, a sample curriculum of our program will be presented along with descriptions of certain unique courses. Several recent success stories will also be highlighted along with an overview of our Polymer and Materials Characterization Laboratory which has helped support a number of undergraduate research projects. The population of our polymer and materials science degree track has nearly tripled in size within the last three years alone, with all of the graduates landing employment or going to graduate school. As so many rural opportunities for chemical employment involve factory support of monomers and/or plastic/materials products, it is our hope that this program can be used as a model for other similar sized rural universities.

Developing a curriculum and degree track in polymer chemistry at a rural, primarily undergraduate university

ACS Spring 2022

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