Program Purpose

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Prepare men and women of character to teach chemistry at the secondary school level and to contribute to their community and profession. Education for this degree has two components: 1) under the direction of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, study of the major subdisciplines of chemistry, related science disciplines, and professional practices in science, and 2) under the direction of the McKay School of Education in collaboration with the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, formal training in the practice and methods of teaching. Both areas of education incorporate the Mission and Aims of BYU.

Curricular Structure

The MAP sequence of courses provides a foundation for understanding the subdisciplines in the freshman year then proceeds to cover subdisciplines in the following years. Laboratory experiences begin in the first semester and continue through the sophomore year and usually into the junior year. In addition, students become experienced in using chemical literature and have the opportunity to take a number of courses in specific subdisciplines of chemistry. The senior year is filled by taking courses in education and participating in student teaching.

Freshman Year: Students take introductory courses in chemistry that focus on fundamental studies of matter and its characterization. The first course includes a walk-in lab to supplement their learning of fundamental physical principles in chemistry. Students also take an introductory chemical laboratory course designed to teach basic analytical and inorganic chemistry.

Sophomore Year: Students begin courses in subdisciplines in chemistry by taking an organic chemistry course along with an introductory analytical chemistry course. Students select an additional chemistry course from among the subdisciplines.

Junior Year: Students take physical chemistry and chemical literature courses and a selected chemistry course from among the subdisciplines. Students begin taking education courses.

Senior Year: This year is filled with education courses and student teaching.

Catalog Information

Major Academic Plan

Learning Outcomes

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Chemistry Fundamentals

Program graduates will have demonstrate a solid conceptual understanding of the structure and reactivity of matter and will firmly grasp the key ideas and practices in analytical, organic and physical chemistry.

Laboratory Procedures and Practice

 Program graduates will be able to perform basic laboratory procedures used in inorganic and small molecule analysis, and organic synthesis, including good standard lab practices and accurate record keeping. They will also be able to design effective experiments and critically analyze data.

Research

Program graduates who choose the research option, will be able to draw on classroom knowledge and laboratory classes to make an individual contribution in a research laboratory.

Communication, Pedagogy and Classroom Management

Program graduates will be able to search, read, and understand technical literature related to chemistry and chemistry education, and effectively communicate chemical ideas orally, graphically, and in writing to both scientific and lay audiences.

Program graduates will be able to design three-dimensional science instruction that supports student learning of disciplinary core ideas, scientific practices, and crosscutting concepts, implement student-centered pedagogies to engage students from diverse cultural backgrounds, create meaningful assessments, and modify instruction based on student learning data.

Professional Ethics

Program graduates will understand professional and scientific ethics. They will apply the Moral Dimensions of Teaching embraced by the McKay School of Education.

Career Preparation

Graduates will be prepared to be effective educators at the secondary level and be able to effectively communicate the range of career opportunities in the chemical sciences open to their students.

Evidence of Learning

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Direct Measures

Chemistry Fundamentals

1. Evaluation by supervisors of the students during their student teaching experience and teacher work sample prepared as part of the student teaching experience, evaluated by the student teaching supervisor. Evaluation of students' performance as teaching assistants by course professors and by the students in their sections. 
2. Performance on the PRAXIS Chemistry, General Science, minor emphasis test and performance on standardized American Chemical Society exams in the various content areas of chemistry.
3. Placement of graduates in teaching positions.
4. Evaluation of student portfolios and their teacher work samples. The portfolio will include: A short essay written during the second year on the student's approach to learning and his or her expectations from the program. The Chem 227 Independent Project Report. The Chem 391 research paper. Best example of the student's writing related to undergraduate research. Best example of a laboratory report. Other material that the student selects as an example of good work. A two-page report by the student that includes a self evaluation, reflections on the experience in the department, a summary of career plans and how experience in the program prepared the student for life beyond graduation.
5. Student evaluations of courses and instructors and exit interviews and survey of graduating students and alumni surveys.

Laboratory Proceedures and Practice

1. Student products in the portfolio, especially research writing and lab reports.
2. Quality of laboratory work, lab notebooks, and lab reports in Chem 113, Chem 227, Chem 354, Chem 464, and Chem 465.
3. Performance on unguided experiments in Chem 464 and Chem 465 and on the independent project in Chem 227.
4. Ability to apply appropriate statistical methods to data collected in Chem 227, Chem 464, and Chem 465.
5. Student evaluations of courses and instructors.
   

 Research Proceedures and Practice

1. Participation by students as authors on papers published in the peer-reviewed literature.
2. Oral and poster presentations by students at at scientific meetings both within and outside of BYU.

Communication, Pedagogy and Classroom Management

1. Quality of oral and written reports in Chem 113, 227, 354, 464, and 465 and quality of assignments in Chem 391, which include an in-depth review paper on a technical subject based on primary research literature, an illustrated oral presentation and an educational presentation for a lay audience.
2. Performance as classroom or laboratory TAs or in preparing demonstrations for classes or outreach visits to local schools.
3. Quality of Teacher Work Samples for a teaching unit that incorporates principles of inquiry, and performance in using it in a secondary school classroom.
4. Rating on the Clinical Practice Assessment System for performance as student teachers. This will be especially important for assessing ability to adapt to needs of high school students and diverse cultures.
5. Feedback from supervising instructors and employers.

Professional Ethics

1. Evaluation of students' response to ethical questions posed in Chem 391. Ethics are also covered in several other courses.
2. Participation in discussions in education classes about the Moral Dimensions of Teaching.
3. Response to ethical issues on the final portfolio essay.

Career Research and Preparation

1. Evaluation of students' understanding of career options during individual advisement.
2. Response to questions on the final portfolio essay.
3. Alumni surveys.

Learning and Teaching Assessment and Improvement

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Program Changes and Improvement

 

Changes in programs in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry are considered, refined, and implemented through a departmental teaching and curriculum committee. The committee is composed of a mix of professional and professorial faculty, with representation from each of the chemistry subdisciplines and with an associate chair as an ex officio member. The committee receives input from a variety of sources as summarized below.

1. The Chair's office-The chair and associate chairs, with support from the administrative assistant and the grants and personnel administrator, compile an annual report that summarizes many of the direct and indirect measures of learning cited in the foregoing section. The chair and associate chairs also conduct exit interviews with graduating seniors and review the results of a detailed written survey administered to students in our senior seminar course. A student advisory council reports to one of the associate chairs. Portfolios, to be implemented for the graduating class of 2009, will also be collected and reviewed in the department office. Given the chair's broad view of student performance and attitudes, many initiatives for program refinement should come from the department leadership.
2. Area Chairs - Each of the five chemistry subdisciplines has an area chair appointed by the department leadership. These senior faculty members are in the best position to assess trends in their subdisciplines and to recommend changes and improvements based on those trends.
3. Department curriculum reviews - The department conducts periodic reviews of major courses in which a faculty member summarizes the content of each course and its relationship to prerequisites and to later courses that depend on its content. These reviews provide excellent opportunities to review and update course learning objectives in the context of program learning objectives.
4. Individual faculty - As course assignments rotate among the faculty and as new faculty are hired, individual faculty members generate ideas for improvements in the curriculum that are channeled through the curriculum committee.

 

Assessment and Improvement of Teaching

 

Teaching performance is assessed with a combination of student evaluations, peer reviews and annual stewardship interviews with the department chair. Student evaluations are collected for each course taught in the department. Although these online evaluations are not direct measures of either teaching or learning, they are effective gauges of student attitudes and their perceptions of the value that a course has added to their education. Numerical scores and student comments for each faculty member are reviewed at least annually by the department chair. Peer reviews of teaching play a critical role in rank and status reviews and complement student evaluations in providing an assessment of teaching performance. The department has adopted the practice of assigning peer reviewers to a new faculty member in the year that an assistant professor is hired, enabling the peer reviewers to track the progress of the new professor over several semesters.

The department regularly schedules seminars by experts in education to bring outside perspective on developments in chemistry education.

 

Grades as Assessment Tools

Grades in individual courses are important direct measures of learning by individual students for many of the program outcomes listed above. The use of grades presupposes that they reflect student achievement of course outcomes, and that the course outcomes are aligned with the program outcomes. We believe that with the careful coordination of program curriculum outlined in this section, grades are effective measures of individual learning outcomes. Because the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry has established grading guidelines for each course, grades are relative measures of student performance, and cannot be used as measures of student body progress from one year to the next. The portfolios to be collected from graduating students will serve as a long-term measure of the quality of student work over the course of several years.

Department Assessment Committee

Jaron Hansen, Dept. Chair; Matthew Asplund, Associate Chair; and Ken Christensen, Associate Chair