Modern instrumentation also offers the advantage over more primitive tools that it emphasizes user convenience, opening the way for students to experience for themselves the acquisition of important fundamental data previously inaccessible at the undergraduate level. The Department believes that a proper chemical education includes significant attention to demonstrating that the concerns of the chemistry curriculum are linked directly to a student s broader intellectual efforts. This commitment means that the tools of science must be treated as discipline-free soil upon which all the various scientific disciplines can flourish and be appreciated. Three pillars of the scientific method must be kept firmly in place if students are in fact to perceive the vital connections between the several branches of science. The first is the primacy of controlled observation.
Observation is the final arbiter of truth in all of science.
The third is that the scientist must attempt to proceed in an orderly fashion from what is known and recorded toward that which is sought. The scientist is obligated to keep abreast of what is already known, and be capable of accessing information relevant to some prospective field of endeavor and assessing its potential for further development. The Chemistry Department strives to throw light on the subject of chemistry with the aid of these foundations, believing that it simultaneously illuminates aspects of the other sciences as well, thereby facilitating examination of the human condition from a unique and valuable perspective.