A Three-Year Chemistry Seminar Program Focusing on Career Development Skills

Abstract

An innovative, three-year seminar program was developed for undergraduates at The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) that supplements the core chemistry curriculum by teaching the auxiliary skills necessary for life as a professional chemist. Advising, good laboratory practice, and information literacy are the strategic components of this program that function as building blocks to support sequential learning objectives and outcomes for students while enriching the chemistry program at TCNJ. Although the seminar program model is not unique to the TCNJ campus, this program has novel components, including a strong faculty-embedded-librarian partnership, a three-year approach that builds new skills onto the foundation of those previously acquired, a mentoring relationship between faculty and students that is reinforced by sustained faculty interaction, a peer mentor component that builds throughout the students’ time at TCNJ, and assessment of knowledge retention at the start of each course. Details pertaining to the components of the program, the impact of the program as evidenced by assessment outcomes, along with student views on how the program influenced their learning skills, and future directions are described.

Evaluating the Relevance of the Chemistry Curriculum to the Workplace: Keeping Tertiary Education Relevant

“…Skolnik emphasized that faculty members must participate in the academic process to increase the growth potential of an undergraduate’s career. It is important to evaluate whether the contents taught by educators are meeting employer demands, and an educator has a responsibility for molding the students . Fair et al have conducted a survey to compare the current chemical techniques and instrumentation used in industries and the content taught in tertiary institutions, thus providing a guideline as to what should be included or excluded from the curriculum.…”

Building Data and Information Literacy in the Undergraduate Chemistry Curriculum

“…Other articles show how information literacy can be introduced in the laboratory setting (9,14,21,25,28). Recognizing the quantity of chemical literature available and the difficulty of building the skills required to find and use it effectively, some programs have approached chemical information literacy in a sequenced or scaffolded fashion (10,13,15,17,20,(26)(27)(28) or treat information literacy in a stand-alone course (11,18,27,29,34,35). Given that the natural "home" for this content straddles two domains, chemistry and library science, it is not unusual to see some level of collaboration between the chemistry faculty and chemistry librarians when developing courses or activities (10, 12, 14, 15, 18-20, 29, 30, 32, 38).…”

Integration of Laboratory Safety and Green Chemistry: Implementation in a Sophomore Seminar and an Advanced Organic Laboratory

“…1 Safe chemical practices can be introduced, reviewed, discussed, and assessed in a variety of ways in laboratory courses. 2−6 Chemical safety can also be incorporated in the curriculum outside of laboratory courses; it is often discussed as part of seminar 7,8 or a in a semester-long safety course. 9−11 Discussions of laboratory and chemical safety can be used to introduce and explore the field of green chemistry: the design and practice of sustainable chemistry and processes which minimize or eliminate the use and generation of hazardous substances.…”

“…Safety in the laboratory is obviously an important component of an undergraduate chemical education . Safe chemical practices can be introduced, reviewed, discussed, and assessed in a variety of ways in laboratory courses. − Chemical safety can also be incorporated in the curriculum outside of laboratory courses; it is often discussed as part of seminar , or a in a semester-long safety course. − …”