Chemical Bonding: A First-Year Seminar Series that Enhances Chemistry Majors’ Perceptions of Chemistry Subdisciplines

TL;DR

A first-year seminar series in chemistry helps students better understand and value different chemistry subfields.

Contribution

A seminar series in General Chemistry II improved students' perceptions of chemistry subdisciplines through expert-led presentations.

Findings

Students became more familiar with and understanding of all chemistry subdisciplines after the seminars.

Students perceived chemistry subdisciplines as more important to their future careers.

Subdisciplines like Analytical Chemistry and Physical Chemistry showed the greatest gains in student perception.

Abstract

First-year seminar
courses are a common strategy used to orient
new college students to the skills and strategies needed to be successful
in college. Here, we describe a first-year seminar series named “Chemical
Bonding” that was incorporated into General Chemistry II. These
seminars focused on introducing new Chemistry and Biochemistry majors
to the subdisciplines of Chemistry. Faculty from 10 subfields of Chemistry
led presentations of their areas of expertise, highlighting research
opportunities and careers that use skills and concepts from their
subdiscipline. We surveyed students to assess how their perceptions
of ten subdisciplines of Chemistry were impacted by these seminars.
Postseminar, students were more familiar with and understanding all
subdisciplines of Chemistry. In addition, students thought the Chemistry
subdisciplines were more important to their future careers, and the
requirement to enroll in classes in these subdisciplines was rated
as more satisfying. Some subdisciplines of Chemistry, such as Analytical
Chemistry, Physical Chemistry, and Materials Science, had greater
gains in perceptions. Others, including Biochemistry, Molecular Biology,
and Healthcare-related sciences, showed lesser gains due to high initial
perceptions of these fields. Together, these results showed that incorporating
the Chemical Bonding seminar series into General Chemistry II improved
students’ perceptions of the subdisciplines of Chemistry across
all three years of study.

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