“The Chemistry of Poisons”: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Integrating Chemical, Toxicological, and Medicinal Principles

Abstract

An interdisciplinary course called "The Chemistry of Poisons" was created, featuring organic chemistry, biology, pharmacology, and toxicology content. This exploratory chemistry elective course was created by an instructor with a background in synthetic organic chemistry and a teaching assistant with a background in pharmacy practice. "The Chemistry of Poisons" features an interdisciplinary, student-centered approach to learning that provides a foundation for future academic initiatives to deliver chemical, pharmacological, and humanistic content in a manner that is both enjoyable for students and demonstrably facilitates knowledge and application level learning. Student course feedback and a retrospective survey were used to gauge student-perceived learning achievement. Survey results and feedback were consistent with knowledge and application level learning of course content and preference for interdisciplinary course design. These results warrant further development and study of interdisciplinary strategies for chemical education.

A Free and Fun Chemistry Resource for Use in Multidisciplinary “Chemistry of Archaeology and Art” Courses: The Cultural Heritage Science Open-Source (CHSOS) Database of Analytical Spectra from Historical and Modern Pigments

“…It assesses the degree to which a student understands chemistry's theoretical foundations but does little to help them visualize its numerous, fascinating, and multidisciplinary applications. At the college and university level, this shortcoming has been addressed in courses that creatively pair the study of chemical principles with the study of such diverse topics as poisons, 11 cannabis, 12 computer science, 13 beer brewing, 14 forensic science, 15,16 geology and water quality, 17 the atomic bomb, 18 and art and archeology, 19 to identify but a few. In many cases, student understanding in these college and university courses is facilitated and enriched by laboratory work that utilizes analytical instrumentation that is well beyond the budget of most high schools.…”