The Case for an International Center for First-Year Undergraduate Chemistry Education as a Means of Dealing With a Midlife Crisis

TCE

The Chemical Educator

ISSN: 1430-4171 (electronic version)

Table of Contents

Abstract Volume 9 Issue 4 (2004) pp 255-256

The Case for an International Center for First-Year Undergraduate Chemistry Education as a Means of Dealing With a Midlife Crisis

Paul Kelter,^{*^,^‡} Carlos M. Castro-Acuña,^{^§} and Catherine Hurt Middlecamp^†

^{^‡}Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, pkelter@uiuc.edu; ^{^§}Facultad de Química, Dep. Fisicoquímica, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, C.U. 04510, D.F., México; and ^†Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706

Published online: 30 June 2004

Abstract. In Western countries, postsecondary-level chemical education may be at the midlife crisis stage. Chemical educators have been part of many departments for some time, yet many of these specialists are at the margins rather than in the mainstream of their departments’ sense of purpose. The time is at hand for a re-evaluation of the chemical educator in chemistry departments. The time is also at hand for chemical educators to actively advocate on behalf of the professional advancement of our practitioners. We discuss the nascent International Center for First-Year Undergraduate Chemistry as one possible place for this advocacy.

Key Words: Of Special Interest; general chemistry; first-year chemistry; introductory chemistry; ICUC

(*) Corresponding author. (E-mail: pkelter@uiuc.edu)

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