Duke’s undergraduate chemistry department has set up a new committee to evaluate the department’s faculty, curriculum and freshman and sophomore student participation. Chemistry professor Alvin Crumbliss, chair of the new committee, would not comment on any specific areas that might need to be changed but noted that the committee is looking to evaluate the way the department operates.
David Beratan, chair and R.J. Reynolds Professor of Chemistry, believes there is much room for change in the chemistry department. “Although science moves forward, the curriculum hasn’t changed much in 20 years,” he said.
The most recent change to the curriculum, which occurred in 2002, attempted to shift the focus from the traditional abstract style of teaching chemistry to a more modern, real-world approach, Beratan said.
When the department tried a case-based approach a few years ago, many students complained of the program’s poor organization and confusion within the curriculum, which was ultimately abandoned.
Students claimed they had not been informed of the new approach and that while professors were supposed to be working together they had branched off into their own styles.
“It was bumpy, reviews were mixed,” said Beratan, who believes this approach has the potential to still be effective. “If we had worked it out for two or three years, it would have become just as popular.”
The department is considering many new initiatives, some of which the committee might be evaluating. One such hope is to better link chemistry with other courses for the freshman-sophomore curriculum—such as biology, physics and math—to take a more integrated approach to chemistry.
James Bonk, director of undergraduate studies in the chemistry department, believes the problem with this transition to this more integrated approach is that “most people are pressed for time to cover the nuts and bolts of chemistry and there are an ungodly amount of nuts and bolts.”
At the same time, the department has emphasized a focus on the core material of chemistry to enable students to pursue various different fields. With a cohort of students interested in different areas—including medicine, science, policy and environmental graduate studies—the department has implemented courses that are not tailored to one subgroup more than another.
One curriculum change that the department has discussed is compressing freshman chemistry to one semester to allow students to take Organic Chemistry in the second semester. With more students entering the department reasonably well prepared, there has been a steady push to decrease the number of classes that come before Organic Chemistry. In looking around the country for ways to improve their curriculum, the department is considering taking up the approach found at the University of Michigan in which the order of subjects is reversed so that Organic Chemistry, which places a smaller emphasis on math, could be taken first for students uncomfortable with the quantitative aspect of General Chemistry.
Another major goal of the department is to intensify student participation, especially in student research and independent study. Beratan hopes to see an increase in the number of students who participate in the senior research experience as well as those who graduate in chemistry with distinction.
One way to accomplish this, Beratan said, is to get more undergraduate participation in advanced undergraduate classes and beginning graduate level classes. Although this does not happen very often currently, it could prove especially helpful in the future to those interested in graduate school.
The biggest challenge for the department seems to be how it will deal with a largely understaffed faculty. The department currently maintains about seven faculty members fewer than what it would like, Beratan said, limiting its ability to try new things.
He also noted that some classes were currently taught by “non-tenure streamed” professors, who are not “research active” and were brought in under various different contracts.
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