Chemistry and Chemistry-Biochemistry

Program Objectives

The chemistry-biochemistry degree offered by the Department of Chemistry-Biochemistry prepares chemistry majors for graduate work in pure and applied chemistry, for employment as research chemists and chemical technicians, for entrance into schools for education in the health science and environmental fields, for governmental civil service and teaching positions.

Learning Outcomes

Content Knowledge: Students will understand the basic chemical/ biochemical principles and content in the major specialty areas, which include inorganic, organic, physical, analytical, and biochemistry.
Applied Learning Skills: Students will acquire safe chemical/ biochemical laboratory practices and techniques including the use of instrumentation and computers.
Inquiry and Integrated Learning: Students will be able to design and conduct chemical/biochemical research with appropriate documentation including literature searches.
Communication and Critical Thinking: Students will understand the importance of the discipline to modern society and be able to communicate chemical/biochemical information both orally and in writing to their peers and the public.

Means of Assessment

To assess student learning, the faculty will employ traditional evaluation techniques such as homework assignments, quizzes, examinations, and evaluation of laboratory experiments. The American Chemical Society (ACS) offers standardized exams in every field of chemistry, including biochemistry, and these will be administered to our students upon completion of their coursework for comparison to national averages. In addition, a service learning component will be incorporated in selected courses. Finally, students will be required to fulfill two capstone projects. One will be an independent undergraduate research project under the supervision of a chemistry faculty member and the second will be a seminar that will conclude with the student’s oral and written presentation to the faculty and to his/her peers. Most chemistry-biochemistry students will also present their research at national meetings of scientific societies, such as the ACS.

Programs

Major(s)

Chemistry-Biochemistry Major

Minor(s)

Four Year Plan(s)