In forming our new curriculum, we reject the traditional positivist approach to science education in favor of a constructivist approach that emphasizes problem solving and exploratory learning. We make this change because we focus on developing key skills, traits and abilities in our students. Our new curriculum, the Molecular Science Curriculum, cuts across departmental and disciplinary boundaries embracing all activities that involve the study of atoms and molecules. In particular, environmental science, materials science, and molecular life science have an important place in the lower-division curriculum. This new curriculum reflects accurately current practice in research and in chemical industry where growth is occurring in these new fields.
Students can learn science by doing science.
Client-server technology enables individualized courses and frees students from rigid time constraints. New assessment vehicles including cumulative electronic portfolios of group and individual work provide new insight into student development and potential. An educational database of organic and inorganic chemical reactions is being created. Along with the accompanying study guides and exercises, this database will find applications in research, and in high school, undergraduate and graduate education. A large digital base of images that exhibit symmetry taken from every facet of human experience will be developed, with images that can be stored on CD-ROM or exported to schools over a fiber optic network.