Making Chemistry Relevant to the Engineering Major

Abstract

As part of a campus-wide, externally funded project to increase performance in, enthusiasm for, and retention within STEM disciplines, we developed an interdisciplinary, team-taught first-year seminar course. The construction and delivery of this course was designed to show the relevance of selected general chemistry topics such as matter and energy to students in STEM disciplines outside of chemistry, particularly to pre-engineering students. Centered on a “science in space” theme, students in the course participated in a series of hands-on, open-ended activities adapted from the chemical education literature. Concept maps were used as assessment tools to measure improvement of cognition, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills. These instruments were also useful in evaluating the students’ grasp of relevance regarding general chemistry topics. At the end of the course, participating students have shown improvement in all targeted skill areas and articulate the relevance of chemistry to engineering, physics, and other STEM disciplines. Additionally, students participating in this program have increased academic success during their first year and beyond, as measured by retention, test performance, GPA, and progression metrics.