Challenges in Chemistry Graduate Education

Challenges in Chemistry Graduate Education
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 96
Release: 2012-09-21
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0309257085

Chemistry graduate education is under considerable pressure. Pharmaceutical companies, long a major employer of synthetic organic chemists, are drastically paring back their research divisions to reduce costs. Chemical companies are opening new research and development facilities in Asia rather than in the United States to take advantage of growing markets and trained workforces there. Universities, especially public universities, are under significant fiscal constraints that threaten their ability to hire new faculty members. Future federal funding of chemical research may be limited as the federal budget tightens. All of these trends have major consequences for the education of chemistry graduate students in U.S. universities. To explore and respond to these intensifying pressures, the Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology held a workshop in Washington, DC, on January 23-24 2012, titled "Graduate Education in Chemistry in the Context of a Changing Environment." The workshop brought together representatives from across the chemical enterprise, representing leaders and future leaders of academia, industry, and government. The goal of the workshop was not to come to conclusions, but to have an open and frank discussion about critical issues affecting chemistry graduate education, such as the attraction and retainment of the most able students to graduate education, financial stressors on the current support model and their implications for the future model, competencies needed in the changing job market for Ph.D. chemists, and competencies needed to address societal problems such as energy and sustainability. Challenges in Chemistry Graduate Education: A Workshop Summary is organized into six chapters and summarizes the workshop on "Graduate Education in Chemistry in the Context of a Changing Environment."

Chemistry Education

Chemistry Education
Author: Javier García-Martínez
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 794
Release: 2015-05-04
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 3527336052

Winner of the CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title 2017 Award This comprehensive collection of top-level contributions provides a thorough review of the vibrant field of chemistry education. Highly-experienced chemistry professors and education experts cover the latest developments in chemistry learning and teaching, as well as the pivotal role of chemistry for shaping a more sustainable future. Adopting a practice-oriented approach, the current challenges and opportunities posed by chemistry education are critically discussed, highlighting the pitfalls that can occur in teaching chemistry and how to circumvent them. The main topics discussed include best practices, project-based education, blended learning and the role of technology, including e-learning, and science visualization. Hands-on recommendations on how to optimally implement innovative strategies of teaching chemistry at university and high-school levels make this book an essential resource for anybody interested in either teaching or learning chemistry more effectively, from experience chemistry professors to secondary school teachers, from educators with no formal training in didactics to frustrated chemistry students.

Green Chemistry Education

Green Chemistry Education
Author: Paul T. Anastas
Publisher:
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2009
Genre: Education
ISBN:

Green Chemistry has brought about dramatic changes in the teaching of chemistry that have resulted in increased student excitement for the subject of chemistry, new lecture materials, new laboratory experiments, and a world-wide community of Green Chemistry teachers. This book features the cutting edge of this advance in the teaching of chemistry.

Chemical Education: Towards Research-based Practice

Chemical Education: Towards Research-based Practice
Author: J.K. Gilbert
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 434
Release: 2003-01-31
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1402011121

Chemical education is essential to everybody because it deals with ideas that play major roles in personal, social, and economic decisions. This book is based on three principles: that all aspects of chemical education should be associated with research; that the development of opportunities for chemical education should be both a continuous process and be linked to research; and that the professional development of all those associated with chemical education should make extensive and diverse use of that research. It is intended for: pre-service and practising chemistry teachers and lecturers; chemistry teacher educators; chemical education researchers; the designers and managers of formal chemical curricula; informal chemical educators; authors of textbooks and curriculum support materials; practising chemists and chemical technologists. It addresses: the relation between chemistry and chemical education; curricula for chemical education; teaching and learning about chemical compounds and chemical change; the development of teachers; the development of chemical education as a field of enquiry. This is mainly done in respect of the full range of formal education contexts (schools, universities, vocational colleges) but also in respect of informal education contexts (books, science centres and museums).

Problems and Problem Solving in Chemistry Education

Problems and Problem Solving in Chemistry Education
Author: Georgios Tsaparlis
Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry
Total Pages: 503
Release: 2021-05-17
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1839163593

Problem solving is central to the teaching and learning of chemistry at secondary, tertiary and post-tertiary levels of education, opening to students and professional chemists alike a whole new world for analysing data, looking for patterns and making deductions. As an important higher-order thinking skill, problem solving also constitutes a major research field in science education. Relevant education research is an ongoing process, with recent developments occurring not only in the area of quantitative/computational problems, but also in qualitative problem solving. The following situations are considered, some general, others with a focus on specific areas of chemistry: quantitative problems, qualitative reasoning, metacognition and resource activation, deconstructing the problem-solving process, an overview of the working memory hypothesis, reasoning with the electron-pushing formalism, scaffolding organic synthesis skills, spectroscopy for structural characterization in organic chemistry, enzyme kinetics, problem solving in the academic chemistry laboratory, chemistry problem-solving in context, team-based/active learning, technology for molecular representations, IR spectra simulation, and computational quantum chemistry tools. The book concludes with methodological and epistemological issues in problem solving research and other perspectives in problem solving in chemistry. With a foreword by George Bodner.

Integrating Green and Sustainable Chemistry Principles into Education

Integrating Green and Sustainable Chemistry Principles into Education
Author: Andrew P. Dicks
Publisher: Elsevier
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2019-07-19
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0128174196

Integrating Green and Sustainable Chemistry Principles into Education draws on the knowledge and experience of scientists and educators already working on how to encourage green chemistry integration in their teaching, both within and outside of academia. It highlights current developments in the field and outlines real examples of green chemistry education in practice, reviewing initiatives and approaches that have already proven effective. By considering both current successes and existing barriers that must be overcome to ensure sustainability becomes part of the fabric of chemistry education, the book's authors hope to drive collaboration between disciplines and help lay the foundations for a sustainable future. - Draws on the knowledge and expertise of scientists and educators already working to encourage green chemistry integration in their teaching, both within and outside of academia - Highlights current developments in the field and outlines real examples of green chemistry education in practice, reviewing initiatives and approaches that have already proven effective - Considers both current successes and existing barriers that must be overcome to ensure sustainability

Introduction to Strategies for Organic Synthesis

Introduction to Strategies for Organic Synthesis
Author: Laurie S. Starkey
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 439
Release: 2018-05-01
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1119347246

Bridging the Gap Between Organic Chemistry Fundamentals and Advanced Synthesis Problems Introduction to Strategies of Organic Synthesis bridges the knowledge gap between sophomore-level organic chemistry and senior-level or graduate-level synthesis to help students more easily adjust to a synthetic chemistry mindset. Beginning with a thorough review of reagents, functional groups, and their reactions, this book prepares students to progress into advanced synthetic strategies. Major reactions are presented from a mechanistic perspective and then again from a synthetic chemist’s point of view to help students shift their thought patterns and teach them how to imagine the series of reactions needed to reach a desired target molecule. Success in organic synthesis requires not only familiarity with common reagents and functional group interconversions, but also a deep understanding of functional group behavior and reactivity. This book provides clear explanations of such reactivities and explicitly teaches students how to make logical disconnections of a target molecule. This new Second Edition of Introduction to Strategies for Organic Synthesis: Reviews fundamental organic chemistry concepts including functional group transformations, reagents, stereochemistry, and mechanisms Explores advanced topics including protective groups, synthetic equivalents, and transition-metal mediated coupling reactions Helps students envision forward reactions and backwards disconnections as a matter of routine Gives students confidence in performing retrosynthetic analyses of target molecules Includes fully-worked examples, literature-based problems, and over 450 chapter problems with detailed solutions Provides clear explanations in easy-to-follow, student-friendly language Focuses on the strategies of organic synthesis rather than a catalogue of reactions and modern reagents The prospect of organic synthesis can be daunting at the outset, but this book serves as a useful stepping stone to refresh existing knowledge of organic chemistry while introducing the general strategies of synthesis. Useful as both a textbook and a bench reference, this text provides value to graduate and advanced undergraduate students alike.

Graduate Education in the Chemical Sciences

Graduate Education in the Chemical Sciences
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 185
Release: 2000-07-31
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0309171725

Graduate Education in the Chemical Sciences is a summary of the December 1999 workshop, "Graduate Education in the Chemical Sciences: Issues for the 21st Century." This workshop discussed the various features of graduate education in chemical science and technology. Using case histories and their individual experiences, speakers examined the current status of graduate education in the chemical sciences, identified problems and opportunities, and discussed possible strategies for improving the system. The discussion was oriented toward the goal of generating graduates who are well prepared to advance the chemical sciences in academia, government, and industry in the next 5 to 10 years.

Beyond the Molecular Frontier

Beyond the Molecular Frontier
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2003-03-19
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0309168392

Chemistry and chemical engineering have changed significantly in the last decade. They have broadened their scopeâ€"into biology, nanotechnology, materials science, computation, and advanced methods of process systems engineering and controlâ€"so much that the programs in most chemistry and chemical engineering departments now barely resemble the classical notion of chemistry. Beyond the Molecular Frontier brings together research, discovery, and invention across the entire spectrum of the chemical sciencesâ€"from fundamental, molecular-level chemistry to large-scale chemical processing technology. This reflects the way the field has evolved, the synergy at universities between research and education in chemistry and chemical engineering, and the way chemists and chemical engineers work together in industry. The astonishing developments in science and engineering during the 20th century have made it possible to dream of new goals that might previously have been considered unthinkable. This book identifies the key opportunities and challenges for the chemical sciences, from basic research to societal needs and from terrorism defense to environmental protection, and it looks at the ways in which chemists and chemical engineers can work together to contribute to an improved future.